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The National Center for Homeless Education (NCHE) operates the U.S. Department of Education's technical assistance and information center for the federal Education for Homeless Children and Youth (EHCY) Program. NCHE is based at The SERVE Center at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG). NCHE hosts this Homeless Education Mailing List to share information and resources with educators, service providers, and other interested stakeholders about meeting the educational needs of children and youth experiencing homelessness. The ideas on this listserv do not necessarily reflect the views of NCHE, The SERVE Center, UNCG, or the U.S. Department of Education. ALL LOBBYING ACTIVITIES ARE STRICTLY FORBIDDEN.
NEW RESEARCH BRIEF
Child Separations among Families Experiencing Homelessness
 
title page of the Still Hungry and Homeless in College report
Dear colleagues:

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) has released another brief as part of its Homeless Families Research Briefs, 2014-2018 series.

Child Separations among Families Experiencing Homelessness

This brief builds on a previous brief in this series, which looked at family separations and reunifications in the 20 months after being in emergency shelter. This new brief takes a closer look, revealing more extensive and persistent levels of child separation. It gives detailed characteristics of separated children and examines whether future child separation after a shelter stay is related to either housing instability or previous separations.

Key Findings and Highlights:
  • One-third of children in families who experienced homelessness were separated from the family at the time of the shelter stay or had been separated at some time in the past.
  • A majority of those separated at the time of shelter stay had been separated from the family for 18 months or more. Most of these separated children were staying with their other parent (44 percent), with a grandparent (25 percent) or with other relatives (22 percent).
  • Separations continued in the three years after a shelter stay. Although overall rates of separation remained fairly constant, families experienced churning, with both separations and reunifications occurring throughout the period.
  • Children with prior separations were more likely to become separated again. Among children who were with the family in shelter and had no previous separation prior to entering shelter, seven percent were not with the family three years later. In contrast, among children who were with the family in shelter but were previously separated prior to shelter entry, 17 percent were separated from the family three years later.
  • Children who were separated from their family three years after the initial stay in shelter were more likely to be from families who experienced continued housing instability after the initial shelter stay. Thirty-seven percent of children who were separated at that time were from families that experienced at least one night homeless during the prior six months, compared to only 13 percent of children who were not separated.
  • About a quarter of families with separated children as of three years after the shelter stay reported that not having a place to live or enough space were factors that made it difficult for their children to live with them.

Download Child Separations among Families Experiencing Homelessness and other briefs from the series at https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/research/project/homeless-families-research-briefs.

Best regards,

Christina Dukes, Federal Liaison
National Center for Homeless Education (NCHE)
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National Center for Homeless Education (NCHE) | http://nche.ed.gov
 
Operating the U.S. Department of Education's technical assistance center for the federal Education for Homeless Children and Youth (EHCY) Program
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