Homeless Primary Nighttime Residence Type: WISEdata
Homeless Primary Nighttime Residence Type denotes the kind of impermanent housing or lack of housing where the homeless student stays at night. This value is a required field for homeless children and youth as individuals who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence. For more on the definition of homeless status and further details, see the student Homeless Program Association page.
USES: Homeless data will be used to meet disaggregated data requirements of the United States Department of Education (ED) using the Education Data Exchange Network (EDEN). At a minimum, disaggregated enrollment, dropout, graduation, and assessment data will be provided. The primary purpose of the data will be to determine the status of the education of homeless students in general and to evaluate the effectiveness of programs supported by the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (under ESSA Title IX, Part A).
FAQs, Details, and Points to Note
- Homelessness Questions: Questions about homeless status for WISEdata purposes should be answered based on this webpage and definitions provided by the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. Please contact your district homeless liaison for clarification or further guidance before entering a student as homeless in WISEdata. A list of district homeless liaisons is available on the Department of Public Instruction's (DPI)
Education for Homeless Children and Youth website. If you have further questions regarding the definition of homeless status, please contact an EHCY state coordinator. - Residence Option Descriptions:
- Shelters and Transitional Housing: Temporary accommodation for homeless individuals and families, as a step to permanent housing. Residents of transitional housing are considered homeless until they move into permanent housing. Transitional housing programs may last up to 24 months, provide housing in addition to wraparound services, and typically require participants to pay a portion of their housing costs based on a sliding scale.
- Doubled Up: This means sharing the housing of other persons due to economic hardship, loss of housing, or similar reasons.
- Hotel/Motels: Children, youth, and unaccompanied youth who are temporarily living in hotels and motels
- Unsheltered: Children, youth, or unaccompanied youth who live in abandoned buildings or apartments, bus and train stations, campgrounds, cars, parks, public spaces, trailer parks, children abandoned in hospitals, and children and youth who live in **substandard or inadequate housing.
- Unsheltered includes children and youth who are living in substandard or inadequate housing, including trailer homes that are "inadequate." These housing situations do not easily fit into any category and are judged on a case-by-case basis by the district homeless liaison.
- School Enrollment Period: During each school term, each school enrollment period should be considered separately for purposes of submitting a student's homeless status to DPI. Note that if a student in school A is homeless at any point during school term X, continues at school A for school term X+1, but is not ever homeless during school term X+1, then the student is counted as homeless in school A during school term X and is not counted as homeless in school A during school term X+1.
- 2018-19 SY Changes for Homeless Data: Starting in the 2018-19 school year, Homeless Status will no longer be collected as a student characteristic that's submitted when true. Homeless Status will be collected as a new program with two new program attribute fields of Homeless Primary Nighttime Residence and Homeless Unaccompanied Youth. The student Homeless Program Association record includes a Program Type of Homeless and Program Name of Education for Homeless Children and Youth. It will track if a student was homeless at any point during a given school year and the education of the homeless student. Every school a student attends while identified as homeless should submit the student as homeless; multiple schools will submit this data if the student has multiple enrollments while homeless during the year.
- Updating Residence Value: You can update the residence type for a homeless student's program association at any time without needing to create a brand new homeless program submission. The program data, including Begin Date, can remain in place when updating the residence value. Schools would need to create a new homeless program submission if the student transfers schools or a new school year starts. See the use cases below for guidance.
- When is Primary Nighttime Residence established? A student’s primary nighttime residence is determined at the time of the initial identification of homelessness. This means districts do not need to re-collect the Primary Nighttime Residence after the student is initially identified as homeless.
- 2018-19 Homeless Reporting Use Cases:
- Student Enrolled in Same School and Homeless for Entire School Year: The district in which the student is enrolled will submit the student Homeless Program Association, linking the student to the Education for Homeless Children and Youth program and the school where the student is enrolled. Submit the Begin Date as the date the student was first identified as homeless within the enrollment period; this may or may not be the enrollment start date. You would also enter a value for the Homeless Primary Nighttime Residence Type field and the Homeless Unaccompanied Youth field. Because the student is homeless for the entirety of the school year, you would not enter an End Date.
- Student Enrolled in Same School for Entire School Year but Homeless Temporarily: The district in which the student is enrolled will submit the student Homeless Program Association, linking the student to the Education for Homeless Children and Youth program and the school where the student is enrolled. Submit the Begin Date as the date the student was first identified as homeless within the enrollment period; this may or may not be the enrollment start date. You would also enter a value for the Homeless Primary Nighttime Residence Type field and the Homeless Unaccompanied Youth field. Because the student is homeless for a specified period of time, you need to update the student's record with a Homeless End Date when the student finds permanent residence, which can be any time during the enrollment period.
- Homeless Student Transfers Schools in Same District: The first school where the student is enrolled (School A) when the student is first identified as homeless will submit the student Homeless Program Association, linking the student to the Education for Homeless Children and Youth program and the school where the student is enrolled.
- School A will submit the Begin Date as the date the student was first identified as homeless within the enrollment period; this may or may not be the enrollment start date. School A would also enter a value for the Homeless Primary Nighttime Residence Type field and the Homeless Unaccompanied Youth field. School A leaves the End Date null because the student hasn't yet found permanent residence.
- When the student transfers to School B within the same district, School B then submits the student Homeless Program Association, linking the student to the Education for Homeless Children and Youth program and the school where the student is enrolled. School B will submit the Begin Date as the date the student enrolled, as the student has continued to be homeless. End Date is null for School B as well because the student has still not secured permanent residence.
- Homeless Student Transfers Districts: The first school where the student is enrolled (School A in District A) when the student is first identified as homeless will submit the student Homeless Program Association, linking the student to the Education for Homeless Children and Youth program and the school where the student is enrolled.
- School A in District A will submit the Begin Date as the date the student was first identified as homeless within the enrollment period; this may or may not be the enrollment start date. School A would also enter a value for the Homeless Primary Nighttime Residence Type field and the Homeless Unaccompanied Youth field. School A leaves the End Date null because the student hasn't yet found permanent residence.
- When the student transfers to School B within a different District B, School B then submits the student Homeless Program Association, linking the student to the Education for Homeless Children and Youth program and the school where the student is enrolled. School B will submit the Begin Date as the date the student enrolled there, as the student has continued to be homeless. End Date is null for School B as well because the student has still not secured permanent residence.
- Student Homeless at School A but Not at School B After Intra-district Transfer: The first school where the student is enrolled (School A) when the student is first identified as homeless will submit the student Homeless Program Association, linking the student to the Education for Homeless Children and Youth program and the school where the student is enrolled.
- School A will submit the Begin Date as the date the student was first identified as homeless within the enrollment period; this may or may not be the enrollment start date. School A would also enter a value for the Homeless Primary Nighttime Residence Type field and the Homeless Unaccompanied Youth field. School A submits the Homeless End Date as the date the student finds permanent residence and must be within the enrollment period.
- School B does not need to submit Homeless information data for the student because the student has not been identified as homeless during the enrollment period with School B.
- Student Homeless at School A in District A but Not at School B After Inter-district Transfer: The first school where the student is enrolled (School A in District A) when the student is first identified as homeless will submit the student Homeless Program Association, linking the student to the Education for Homeless Children and Youth program and the school where the student is enrolled.
- School A in District A will submit the Begin Date as the date the student was first identified as homeless within the enrollment period; this may or may not be the enrollment start date. School A would also enter a value for the Homeless Primary Nighttime Residence Type field and the Homeless Unaccompanied Youth field. School A submits the Homeless End Date as the date the student finds permanent residence; this date must be within the enrollment period.
- School B in District B does not need to submit Homeless information data for the student because the student has not been identified as homeless during the enrollment period with School B.
- Students Awaiting Foster Care Placement: The term “awaiting foster care placement” was removed from the definition of homeless under the McKinney-Vento Act when it was reauthorized under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). This change went into effect beginning December 10, 2015. Students “awaiting foster care placement” are no longer identified as experiencing homelessness and do not qualify for services under McKinney-Vento. Districts should not be entering these students into the Student Information System under the Homeless tab. For more information on the foster care provisions in Title I of ESSA, please see the Out-of-Home Care and Educational Stability website.
See also:
Education of Homeless Children and Youth
To provide feedback, click the "Submit Feedback About This Webpage" button below.