The voices behind the numbers: Understanding the experiences of homeless students

In a given year, approximately 1.6 million children in the United States experience homeless-ness, and research shows that their living conditions generally place these children at risk for educational underperformance and failure at school (Hall, 2007; Love, 2009). Although lack of education or low levels of education on the part of a head of household are often identified as indicators of poverty, or associated with the persistence of poverty, too few researchers have attempted to understand the lived experience of poverty and its impact on educational experiences through the eyes of children and youth. In this article, we bring the harsh reali-ties of children’s experiences to light through portraits of five homeless children. After situ-ating homelessness within the context of the McKinney-Vento Act, and within the broader context of empirical research on homelessness and its impact on children’s educational ex-periences, we attempt to put a human face on the challenge of child homelessness and pov-erty in America