At least 1.4 million school-aged children in the U.S. are experiencing homelessness, living in urban, suburban, & rural communities alike. However, the proposed 2026 federal budget would eliminate dedicated funding for the program that guarantees education protections and services for these students.
Jennifer Erb-Downward, director of housing stability programs and policy initiatives at Poverty Solutions, offered analysis of the potential impact of the funding cuts based on her research on the educational implications of homelessness. See her guest commentary for Brookings and her op-ed in The 74.
Why it matters: Students experiencing homelessness already face significant educational challenges. Without school district homeless liaisons to identify students experiencing homelessness and coordinate their enrollment and attendance, many of these students might not attend school at all.
"By preserving the McKinney-Vento program, we can ensure that being homeless as a child does not determine the course of that child’s education or future," she wrote in The 74.
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