Public schools identified 1,548,191 students as homeless during the 2023-24 school year, according to a February 2026 data summary from the National Center for Homeless Education (NCHE). Two years earlier, in 2021-22, the count was 1,205,311. That is an increase of 342,880 students, or 28.4%.
NCHE is the technical assistance center for the U.S. Department of Education's Education for Homeless Children and Youths program. Its figures come from counts that states report to the department each year. The national total includes Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, and schools run by the Bureau of Indian Education.
NCHE's report puts total public school enrollment for 2023-24 at 49,691,210 students. Dividing the homeless count by that number (1,548,191 ÷ 49,691,210) gives about 3.1%, or roughly 1 student in 32. The report's state table rounds the national rate to 3.2%, while its written summary uses 3.1%.
New York reported 186,994 homeless students, or 7.4% of its enrollment, the highest rate in NCHE's table. Texas reported 121,470, a rate of 2.2%, even though it enrolls more than twice as many students. Texas had 5,532,518 public school students in 2023-24 and New York had 2,510,607, according to allk12's analysis of National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) data. New York's homeless count was 65,524 students higher (186,994 minus 121,470).
New York's homeless students alone outnumbered the entire public school enrollment of 11 states and D.C. that year, from Vermont (78,639 students) to Hawaii (169,308), based on the same NCES figures.
California had the largest count, 286,853, or 4.9% of its students. Together, California and New York reported 473,847 homeless students, 30.6% of the national total. After New York, the highest rates were in Washington, D.C. (7.2%), Bureau of Indian Education schools (6.5%), and West Virginia (6.2%). The lowest were in Puerto Rico (1.0%), Connecticut (1.1%), and New Jersey (1.2%).
Every state and D.C. reported more homeless students in 2023-24 than in 2021-22. South Dakota's count more than doubled, from 1,728 to 3,699, a 114.1% jump. Hawaii's rose 80.7% and Massachusetts' rose 68.2%, to 35,985 students. Five places reported fewer than in 2022-23: Delaware, D.C., Iowa, Louisiana, and Puerto Rico. Delaware had the biggest drop, from 4,416 to 3,708. Ohio, where allk12 reported on a principal who took in a homeless student, counted 32,764, or 2.0% of enrollment.
| State | Homeless students, 2023-24 | Share of enrolled students | Change since 2021-22 |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 186,994 | 7.4% | +40.0% |
| District of Columbia | 7,139 | 7.2% | +21.6% |
| Bureau of Indian Education | 2,391 | 6.5% | +36.1% |
| West Virginia | 15,346 | 6.2% | +67.6% |
| California | 286,853 | 4.9% | +27.1% |
| Washington | 45,817 | 4.2% | +21.8% |
| Oregon | 22,881 | 4.2% | +23.8% |
| Missouri | 35,522 | 4.0% | +7.7% |
| Massachusetts | 35,985 | 3.9% | +68.2% |
| Arkansas | 18,886 | 3.9% | +37.7% |
| New Mexico | 11,735 | 3.8% | +19.3% |
| Montana | 5,668 | 3.8% | +23.0% |
| Oklahoma | 26,009 | 3.7% | +23.0% |
| Nevada | 17,834 | 3.7% | +8.2% |
| Illinois | 67,304 | 3.6% | +39.1% |
| Hawaii | 5,876 | 3.5% | +80.7% |
| Kentucky | 22,320 | 3.4% | +6.1% |
| Florida | 96,220 | 3.3% | +24.6% |
| Alaska | 3,950 | 3.0% | +27.7% |
| Idaho | 9,266 | 2.9% | +9.9% |
| Maine | 4,894 | 2.8% | +58.5% |
| Wyoming | 2,435 | 2.7% | +40.4% |
| Pennsylvania | 43,222 | 2.6% | +27.0% |
| Colorado | 22,896 | 2.6% | +38.4% |
| Delaware | 3,708 | 2.6% | +8.0% |
| South Dakota | 3,699 | 2.6% | +114.1% |
| Georgia | 44,445 | 2.5% | +25.1% |
| Michigan | 35,495 | 2.5% | +23.6% |
| Tennessee | 24,710 | 2.5% | +41.1% |
| Wisconsin | 20,200 | 2.5% | +22.5% |
| Louisiana | 17,721 | 2.5% | +2.0% |
| North Carolina | 34,950 | 2.3% | +22.1% |
| Maryland | 20,039 | 2.3% | +21.2% |
| Utah | 15,998 | 2.3% | +34.5% |
| Vermont | 1,913 | 2.3% | +45.8% |
| Texas | 121,470 | 2.2% | +24.9% |
| Minnesota | 18,886 | 2.2% | +29.5% |
| New Hampshire | 3,607 | 2.2% | +8.5% |
| North Dakota | 2,637 | 2.2% | +31.9% |
| Ohio | 32,764 | 2.0% | +19.9% |
| Arizona | 21,979 | 2.0% | +21.8% |
| Indiana | 20,896 | 2.0% | +27.9% |
| South Carolina | 15,862 | 2.0% | +37.4% |
| Alabama | 14,488 | 1.9% | +60.1% |
| Kansas | 8,810 | 1.8% | +31.7% |
| Virginia | 20,784 | 1.7% | +26.6% |
| Mississippi | 6,498 | 1.5% | +17.0% |
| Iowa | 7,186 | 1.4% | +10.3% |
| Nebraska | 4,599 | 1.4% | +48.2% |
| Rhode Island | 1,966 | 1.4% | +34.6% |
| New Jersey | 17,315 | 1.2% | +55.9% |
| Connecticut | 5,463 | 1.1% | +37.3% |
| Puerto Rico | 2,660 | 1.0% | 0.0% |
Source: National Center for Homeless Education, Data Summary for School Years 2021-22 to 2023-24, Table 1 (EDFacts file 118 and NCES Common Core of Data membership). Sorted by share of enrolled students. Shares are NCHE's. Change since 2021-22 is calculated from NCHE's counts. Counts include students ages 3 to 5, kindergarten through grade 13, and ungraded students.
Where homeless students stay at night
Schools record each student's nighttime living situation when they are first identified. Federal reporting uses four categories. In 2023-24, NCHE's data table showed:
- Doubled up, meaning sharing someone else's housing because of loss of housing or economic hardship: 1,150,630 students, or 74.3%
- Shelters and transitional housing: 196,812, or 12.7%
- Hotels or motels: 132,010, or 8.5%
- Unsheltered, such as cars, parks, or abandoned buildings: 67,536, or 4.4%
The shelter group grew fastest. It went from 131,051 students in 2021-22 to 196,812 in 2023-24, up 50.2%. Over the same two years, the unsheltered count rose 31.2%, doubled-up 25.7%, and hotels or motels 23.8%. One passage in NCHE's written summary gives different shelter and hotel figures. The numbers here come from its data table, which adds up to the national total and matches NCHE's previous report.
NCHE counted 127,848 unaccompanied youth in 2023-24, up 15.5% from 110,664 in 2021-22. These are homeless students who are not in the physical custody of a parent or guardian. They made up 8.3% of all homeless students, and 84.5% of them were doubled up.
NCHE also tracked attendance and graduation. It reported that 47.7% of homeless students were chronically absent in 2023-24, meaning they missed at least 10% of the days they were enrolled. Their four-year graduation rate was 69.1% in 2022-23, the latest year in the report, compared with 86.7% for all students. That is a gap of 17.6 percentage points.
What the McKinney-Vento Act requires
Under the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, children and youth are homeless if they "lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence," which includes doubling up, living in a motel, shelter, or car, and similar situations.
The law gives these students specific rights. A school must enroll a homeless student immediately, even if the student can't produce school records, immunization records, or proof of residency, or has missed enrollment deadlines while homeless. Based on the student's best interest, the district must either keep the student in their school of origin or enroll them in the local school where they are staying. The school of origin is the school the student attended when last permanently housed or last enrolled in, including a preschool.
A student can stay in that school for as long as they are homeless, and through the end of the school year if the family finds permanent housing mid-year. States and districts must provide transportation to and from the school of origin when a parent or guardian asks, or the district liaison asks for an unaccompanied youth. Every school district must name a homeless liaison to carry out these duties.
Sources
National Center for Homeless Education: Education of Children and Youth Experiencing Homelessness in the United States, Data Summary for School Years 2021-22 to 2023-24
National Center for Homeless Education: Student Homelessness in America, School Years 2020-21 to 2022-23
Legal Information Institute: 42 U.S. Code 11434a, Definitions
Legal Information Institute: 42 U.S. Code 11432, Grants for State and local activities for the education of homeless children and youths
State enrollment comparisons from allk12's analysis of National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Common Core of Data, 2023-24.
