A Minn-LInK report written by former Minn-LInK Coordinator Anita Larson and her Graduate Assistant, Danielle Meehan, was published in September’s issue of the Journal of Children and Poverty. This report, entitled “Homeless and highly mobile students: A population-level description of the status of homeless students from three school districts,” utilized Minnesota education and child welfare data housed in Minn-LInK to examine attributes of homeless and highly mobile (H/HM) students. The study found that, in comparison to their Mobile and Non-Mobile peers, H/HM students were:

• More likely to be Black/African-American;
• Slightly more likely to be participating in special education; and
• Significantly more involved with child welfare prior to an identification of homelessness or high mobility by the schools.

Also important to note, in this study, H/HM students had “a much higher rate of determined maltreatments (209.8 per 1000) and out-of-home placements (183.8 per 1000) than their Mobile (50.4 and 31.5, respectively) and Non-Mobile (21.9 and 13.3) peers” (p. 200).
Besides providing a multi-system description of H/HM students, this study also acted as an example of how schools and child welfare systems could harness available data to more effectively work with this population. In its conclusion, recommendations for future research as well as a suggested direction for an evaluation of the McKinney-Vento policy were provided.

Citation: Larson, A. M. & Meehan, D. M. (2011). Homeless and highly mobile students: A population-level description of the status of homeless students from three school districts. Journal of Children and Poverty, 17(2), 187-205. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10796126.2011.529114