Education Outcomes of Children and Youth Experiencing Homelessness

Section 223(1)(bb) of ESSB 6032 requires the Department of Children, Youth, and Families to convene a work group, to create a plan for children and youth in foster care and children and youth experiencing homelessness to facilitate educational equity with their general student population peers and to close the disparities between racial and ethnic groups by 2027. The work group must review the educational outcomes of children and youth in foster care and children and youth experiencing homelessness, and make recommendations about the services and supports that help these children succeed. 

To assist this work group, and at the direction of the legislature, the Education Research and Data Center conducted an analysis on a number of outcome measures, including kindergarten readiness, early grade reading, school stability, high school completion, postsecondary enrollment, and postsecondary completion. The outcome measures are also disaggregated by race and ethnicity.