According to U-M Poverty Solutions, homeless students face more disciplinary action at school than their housed counterparts. Jennifer Erb-Downward, senior research associate at Povery Solutions, explained the effects school discipline can have on these students.
“When you suspend or expel a child from school who's homeless or housing unstable, you're really removing from them the one location of consistency and stability that they have,” Erb-Downward said. “You're making it a place that is not welcoming for them. And that is a really, really critical thing. There's a lot of research that shows that school stability, in the context of experiencing homelessness is really, really critical for kids, just for their mental health, for their overall well being, and then also for their educational well being.”
