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Digest of Education Statistics: 2016
Digest of Education Statistics: 2016

NCES 2017-094
February 2018


Table 204.75b. Number and percentage of homeless students enrolled in public elementary and secondary schools, by school district locale, primary nighttime residence, and selected student characteristics: 2014-15
Primary nighttime residence or
selected student characteristic
Total,
all districts
City Suburban Town Rural
1 2 3 4 5 6
  Number
Total public school enrollment 47,524,823 15,443,142 20,612,743 5,274,392 6,194,546
           
Total number of homeless students1  1,288,050 577,541 422,435 139,371 148,703
           
Number of homeless students, by primary
      nighttime residence2
         
Doubled-up or shared housing3 966,451 404,805 329,220 111,477 120,949
Hotels or motels 83,193 33,242 35,939 7,783 6,229
Shelters, transitional housing, or
       awaiting foster care placement
195,670 120,529 47,707 14,284 13,150
Unsheltered4 40,212 18,267 8,508 5,489 7,948
           
Number of homeless students with selected
      characteristics
         
Unaccompanied homeless youth5 95,475 40,844 29,140 11,732 13,759
English language learners6 182,414 96,922 63,462 13,313 8,717
Migrant students7 17,928 5,787 4,577 4,797 2,767
Students with disabilities8 225,940 101,337 71,764 24,889 27,950
  Percent
Homeless students as a percent of total
      public school enrollment
2.7 3.7 2.0 2.6 2.4
           
Percentage distribution of homeless
      students, by primary nighttime residence
         
Doubled-up or shared housing3 75.0 70.1 77.9 80.0 81.3
Hotels or motels 6.5 5.8 8.5 5.6 4.2
Shelters, transitional housing, or
       awaiting foster care placement
15.2 20.9 11.3 10.2 8.8
Unsheltered4 3.1 3.2 2.0 3.9 5.3
           
Percent of homeless students with selected
      characteristics
         
Unaccompanied homeless youth5 7.4 7.1 6.9 8.4 9.3
English language learners6 14.2 16.8 15.0 9.6 5.9
Migrant students7 1.4 1.0 1.1 3.4 1.9
Students with disabilities8 17.5 17.5 17.0 17.9 18.8
1 Represents the sum of counts by grade.
2 Does not sum to the total number of homeless students because of missing data on primary nighttime residence. (These data are missing for less than 1 percent of homeless students.)
3 Refers to temporarily sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or other reasons (such as domestic violence).
4 Includes living in cars, parks, campgrounds, temporary trailers--including Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) trailers--or abandoned buildings.
5 Youth who are not in the physical custody of a parent or guardian. Includes youth living on their own and youth living with a caregiver who is not their legal guardian.
6 Students who met the definition of limited English proficient students as outlined in the EDFacts workbook. For more information, see http://www2.ed.gov/about/inits/ed/edfacts/eden-workbook.html.
7 Students who met the definition of eligible migrant children as outlined in the EDFacts workbook. Such students are either migratory workers or the children or spouses of migratory workers and have moved within the preceding 36 months in order to obtain, or to accompany parents or spouses who moved in order to obtain, temporary or seasonal employment in agricultural or fishing work. For more information, see http://www2.ed.gov/about/inits/ed/edfacts/eden-workbook.html. Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Rhode Island, and West Virginia did not operate a migrant education program during the 2014-15 school year and therefore had no data to provide on migrant homeless students.
8 Includes only students with disabilities who were served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
NOTE: Homeless students are defined as children/youth who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence. For more information, see "C118 - Homeless Students Enrolled" at https://www2.ed.gov/about/inits/ed/edfacts/sy-14-15-nonxml.html. Data include all homeless students enrolled at any time during the school year. Data exclude Puerto Rico and the Bureau of Indian Education. Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding and missing data on primary nighttime residence. Because this table is based on data reported at the school district level, counts and percentages of homeless students may differ from those shown in tables based on state-level data.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, EDFacts file 118, Data Group 655, extracted January 23, 2017, from the EDFacts Data Warehouse (internal U.S. Department of Education source); and Common Core of Data (CCD), "Local Education Agency Universe Survey," 2014-15. (This table was prepared March 2017.)