Abstract
Brought on by increasing levels of economic vulnerability, homelessness is a pressing issue for our schools. Homeless students often miss an inordinate amount of school days and are thought to fall at the farthest end of a “continuum of poverty.” Theoretically they have worse outcomes than their peers, though the past 20 years of literature have found inconsistencies in these comparisons. Thus the literature suggests analysis to compare types of students based on outcomes rather than demographic categorizations, a person-centered approach. Using this approach, a comparison of the number of absences for homeless students and their housed peers is made through quantile analysis. Using school administrative data collected over one school year for an entire school district we found that homeless students as an aggregate do not miss significantly more days of school than their poorest peers. However, we found homelessness and poverty dramatically increase the number of absences for children who are in the higher percentiles of absences meaning homelessness has a greater impact on those who miss more days of school in general compared to regular attendees. Findings from this study indicate that homelessness may exacerbate problems rather than cause them. Implications for practice are discussed and directions for future study are proposed.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Berliner, D. (2009). Poverty and potential: Out-of-school factors and school success. Boulder and Tempe: Education and the Public Interest Center & Education Policy Research Unit.
Biggar, H. (2001). Homeless children and education: An evaluation of the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act. Children and Youth Services Review, 23, 941–969.
Buckner, J. (2008). Understanding the impact of homelessness on children: Challenges and future research directions. American Behavioral Scientist, 51, 721–736.
Buckner, J., Bassuk, E., & Weinreb, L. (2001). Predictors of academic achievement among homeless and low-income housed children. Journal of School Psychology, 39, 45–69.
Caldas, S. (1993). Reexamination of input and process factor effects on public school achievement. Journal of Educational Research, 86, 206–214.
Di Santo, A. (2012). Promoting preschool literacy: A family literacy program for homeless mothers and their children. Childhood Education, 88, 232–240.
Gottfried, M. A. (2010). Evaluating the relationship between student attendance and achievement in urban elementary and middle schools: An instrumental variables approach. American Educational Research Journal, 47, 434–465.
Groton, D., Teasley, M., & Canfield, J. (2013). Working with homeless school children: Barriers to school social work practice. School Social Work Journal, 37, 37–51.
Hendricks, G., & Barkley, W. (2012). Necessary, but not sufficient: The McKinney–Vento Act and academic achievement in North Carolina. Children & Schools, 34, 179–185.
Julianelle, P., & Foscarinis, M. (2003). Responding to the school mobility of children and youth experiencing homelessness: The McKinney-Vento Act and beyond. The Journal of Negro Education, 72, 39–54.
Koenker, Roger (2005) Quantile regression, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-60827-9.
Massat, C., Constable, R., McDonald, S., & Flynn, J. (2009). School social work: Practice, policy, and research. Chicago: Lyceum.
Miller, P. (2011). An examination of the McKinney-Vento Act and its influences on homeless education situation. Educational Policy, 20, 1–27.
Montgomery, D. C. (2001). Design and analysis of experiments (5th ed.). New York: Wiley.
National Center on Family Homelessness. (2009). America’s youngest outcasts: State report card on child homelessness. Newton: Author.
Nolan, J. R., Cole, T., Wroughton, J., Riffe, H. A., & Clayton-Code, K. P. (2013). Assessment of risk factors for truancy of children in grades K-12 using survival analysis. Journal of At-Risk Issues, 17, 23–30.
Rafferty, Y., Shinn, M., & Weitzman, B. (2004). Academic achievement among formerly homeless adolescents and their continuously housed peers. Journal of School Psychology, 42, 179–199.
Roby, D. E. (2004). Research on school attendance and student achievement: A study of Ohio schools. Educational Research Quarterly, 28, 3–16.
Rukmana, D. (2008). Where the homeless children and youth come from: A study of residential origins of the homeless in Miami Dade County, Florida. Children and Youth Services Review, 30, 1009–1021.
Schoeneberger, J. A. (2012). Longitudinal attendance patterns: developing high school dropouts. The Clearing House, 85, 7–14. doi:10.1080/00098655.2011.603766.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Canfield, J.P., Nolan, J., Harley, D. et al. Using a Person-Centered Approach to Examine the Impact of Homelessness on School Absences. Child Adolesc Soc Work J 33, 199–205 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10560-015-0420-6
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10560-015-0420-6