Policy Brief: More than 10,000 Children and Youth in Philadelphia Experienced Homelessness in School Year 2023. Funding for innovative strategies are about to run out.

The School District of Philadelphia (SDP) supports homeless students with its Education for Children and Youth Experiencing Homelessness (ECYEH) office, a federally funded program.

Funds allocated toward ECYEH are used for 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 to better support students experiencing homelessness.

This paper shares data recently published by the SDP and the Pennsylvania Department of Education using School Year (SY) 2022-23 data — the best publicly available source of data. The report offers insight for decision makers about the prevalence of student homelessness, challenges, and recommendations.

The SDP’s American Rescue Plan funds (ARP) (the primary source of funding for this critical work since 2020) have expired and the new capacity and supports for students will disappear on June 30, 2025. No plans have been developed to build on or continue this support; the School District informed advocates that available state funding is not adequate to support homeless students. 

read full policy brief here