A 10th grade student in one of the schools served by HopePHL was kicked out of his home and reached out for support. He did not have other family or friends to stay with. HopePHL's Thrive program referred him to the emergency shelter at YES, which provided safe housing for the student. During that time, our team provided money for clothing and school supplies so that he was able to keep up with school. At the end of the 21 days, he was able to return home to a diffused situation with his parents.

The story above is just one example of the positive affect the American Rescue Plan’s funding is used to support students experiencing homelessness. Pennsylvania received $32 million from the American Rescue Plan for the Education for Children and Youth Experiencing Homelessness (ECYEH) program. This program supported 40,000 children and youth in 2022. The funding has paid for activities that increase high school graduation, lower truancy, stabilize housing, and much more.
More than 400 school districts and charters have received the funding but stand to lose it as the APR dollars expire January 31, 2025. Any funds that remain will go back to the Treasury. As of January 31, Pennsylvania still had $7.3 million unspent (see general fund status here) with five months remaining.

Thanks to HopePHL and our allies, United State Senators Robert Casey and John Fetterman responded positively to our request to sign-on to a “Dear Colleague” letter that proposes to extend the obligation deadline by one year for funding made available under section 2001(b)(1) of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, for the purposes of serving homeless children and youth (ARP-HCY).

A problem that Senator Casey can solve is to extend the deadline. We are encouraging Congress to extend the obligation deadline by at least one school year to ensure that all ARP-HCY funds are used strategically to support increasing numbers of students experiencing homelessness. Congress also should increase annual funding for the McKinney-Vento Act’s Education for Homeless Children and Youth (EHCY) funding.

As outlined in the report, Congress should extend the deadline because:
​

• One-quarter of school district homeless liaisons that were surveyed, indicated that they may not be able to obligate all of their ARP-HCY funds by the September 2024 deadline due to a limited amount of time and/or administrative hurdles. An additional 25% of liaisons were unaware their district received ARP-HCY funds, potentially making it difficult to meet spending deadlines. This is also a sign of a greater disconnect between school district homeless liaisons and local educational leadership.

 

• Staff turnover and lack of capacity also emerged as challenges across survey responses. At the state level, there was a nearly 50% turnover rate in the position of State Coordinator for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth from April 2021 to January 2024.

 

• Clarity about the flexible use of these funds was not communicated to States until the U.S. Department of Education issued guidance in September 2023 – more than 2.5 years after the funds were first appropriated, ultimately leaving state and local educational agencies with less than 12 months to obligate ARP-HCY funds.

 

• A longer timeline would allow state education agencies time to reallocate ARP-HCY funds more equitably to communities with unique needs. Of particular concern are rural communities, who have unmet need as a result of broad systemic failures, yet are often left out of these funding opportunities. 

 
This funding has had a transformative effect in the lives of children, youth, and families that have experienced homelessness. Thank you, Senators Casey and Fetterman, for doing what is important to support our homeless students.  

The “State-Level Brief Update – A Call to Action” is brought to you by the Pennsylvania Head Start State Collaboration Office and HopePHL, in partnership with Grace Whitney, PhD. The Update highlights key state-level housing, education, and early childhood sector data regarding young children experiencing homelessness and it expands earlier efforts by including data related to young children in foster care.

Dates to know: 

• April 2024 is projected to be the last fully-funded month 
• February 7th at 11:59 P.M. is the last day to enroll in the program. All enrollment for the program will be frozen starting February 8th. 

​
The official last fully-funded month will be announced in late February. ACP households will receive further instruction after this confirmation. Providers must offer additional opt-in to continue service if the consumer had not already been an active customer prior to applying the ACP benefit or if the ACP benefit covers the entire cost of a customer’s bill. 

Notifications To Look For: 

• The FCC will announce the last fully funded month of ACP 60 days prior to the end of that month. (Example: April 2024 is the currently forecasted to be the last month, so the announcement would come on March 1, 2024 if this estimate is correct.) 
• Providers are required to give 3 separate notifications to customer in writing: 

1) January 25, 2024: Must state the possibility of ACP end and potential impact on their future bills 
2) 15 days after FCC announcement of last fully-funded month of ACP 
3) During the customer’s last bill or billing cycle using the ACP benefit 
*Provider Notifications 2 & 3 must state the ending date of ACP and date of the last bill it will be applied to, bill amount without the ACP benefit OR statement that the customer will be subjected to undiscounted rates per term conditions, and give them the ability to change their service and/or to opt out continuing service at the end of ACP. 

​HopePHL organized a coalition to venture to Harrisburg to educate key staff and legislators on October 10 and November 15. For the later event, we joined in with two related efforts for a full day of advocacy for the November event.   
 
We joined in the staff from various ‘Education for Children and Youth Experiencing Homelessness’ networks led by the indefatigable Sonia Pitzi, Regional Coordinator from the Lincoln Intermediate Unit 12. Sonia organized a rally and press conference held in the Main Capitol Building and attended by more than 75 advocates.

The second effort was organized by a number of Allegheny-county based agencies, including the Homeless Education Fund, in partnership with the National Network 4 Youth. They joined the rally and also met with state legislators on four different proposals on various aspects issues relating to youth homelessness.

HopePHL was given the opportunity to provide data at a public hearing of the House Education and Human Services Committees, organized by Philadelphia’s Representative Donna Bullock. More than twenty-five legislators heard a number of shocking challenges confronting the 40,000 children and youth experiencing homelessness in the Commonwealth.

Joining the day were HopePHL Board members Mike Verrill and Brandon Weber (picture above) with Rep. Bullock.

The American Rescue Plan directed a one-time $32 million infusion of support to the Fiscal Year 2023-24 Pennsylvania budget for the Education for Children and Youth Experiencing Homelessness (ECYEH) program. ECYEH expanded its capacity, as did many school districts and charter schools, to provide staffing, train school personnel, and provide direct services like uniforms, transportation, motel stays, mentoring, summer programming, school supplies, and more.

​School Districts across the state identified 40,000 homeless children and youth in Fiscal Year 2022, enough to fill most every seat at Citizens Bank Park.  The Philadelphia School District identified its highest number of children and youth experiencing homelessness – 8,383 in 2022! This is a 7% increase from 2019 and a 94% increase since 2014.


​Thankfully, the federal American Rescue Plan (ARP) provided $36 million to the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s ‘Education for Children and Youth Experiencing Homelessness’ (ECYEH) program, which subcontracted more than $3 million to the School District of Philadelphia (SDP). SDP expanded its capacity to provide staffing to train school personnel in 300 public district and charter schools and provide direct services like uniforms, transportation, mentoring, summer programming, school supplies, and more.