Children Cannot Wait Campaign 2025 Policy Brief

A new report from the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) shows the increase in young children experiencing homelessness in Pennsylvania.

Highlights include:

• Overall, the PDE identified 10,158 children (more than the seating capacity of Palestra Arena in Philadelphia) aged birth to Kindergarten as homeless in 2023, an 11 percent increase from 2022, and an 8 percent increase from 2020.
  
• These young children represent 22 percent of all of Pennsylvania’s homeless children and youth.
  
• Of the four age categories used by PDE, infants and toddlers are the largest group of these young children, representing 35 percent of the 10,158 young children.
  
• The largest percentage increase was in Pre-Kindergarten at 34 percent since 2022 and 49 percent since 2020.

This report seeks to inform practitioners and policy makers about young children experiencing homelessness in Pennsylvania. HopePHL’s series called the “Children Cannot Wait Campaign” aims to increase awareness of children and youth experiencing homelessness.

We provide a summary which identifies children in various categories, using recently published data from the PDE of its the Education of Children and Youth Experiencing Homelessness (ECYEH) program.

Read Full Brief Here