Overview | Cautions | Definitions | Counting Students | Data Sources | Useful Links | Contact Us
Overview
The information on this page pertains to the WISEdash Download Data Files for students identified as having a Student Homeless Program Association.
Homeless status is an indication of whether a student is homeless. Students experiencing homelessness lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence and include students who are:
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sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason;
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living in motels, hotels, or camping grounds due to the lack of alternative adequate accommodations;
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living in emergency or transitional shelters;
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using a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designed for or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings (within the meaning of section 103(a)(2)(C));
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living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, or similar settings;
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migratory children who qualify as homeless because the children are living in circumstances described above; and
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unaccompanied youth who qualify as homeless because they are living in circumstances described above.
| School Years | WISEdash Data Download Files | WISEdash Group by Homeless Status (See Caution 3 below) | Education for Homeless Children and youth (EHCY) Data Charts (See Caution 4 below) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beginning with 2018-19 | X | X | X |
| 2012-13 through 2017-18 | X | X |
Cautions
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Homeless data download file district student counts are reported by the attending /submitting district. All other WISEdash Public Portal data download files report data by the accountable school and district.
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The homeless data download file district total is a duplicated count for the district (student is counted as homeless in each enrolled district that reported the student as homeless). Therefore, the district totals in this download file will not sum to the state totals. See Counting Students below.
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Assessment (State Tests) and HS (High School) Completion dashboards in the WISEdash Public Portal contain a Group By filter for Homeless Status. This filter groups students into those reported by any school district as having been homeless at some time during the school year and those that have not. When looking at a graph for an individual district or school, a student will be included in the Homeless group if they have ever been reported as homeless in any district where the student was enrolled in that year. This will differ from the download data file which will only count the student as homeless in the district if that district reported the student as homeless. State Test dashboards display Homeless status groupings back to 2014-15. HS Completion dashboards display Homeless status groupings back to 2009-10.
- Prior to 2018-19, the state totals displayed on the EHCY (Education for Homeless Children and Youth) Data page are duplicated counts. They are the sum of each district’s count, so a student may be counted as homeless more than once. See Counting Students below.
- The Homeless totals in the charts within Enrollment in the WISEdash Public Portal were calculated by setting homeless status to the last district of enrollment (regardless of where the student was actually reported as homeless). These totals will not match the counts in the Homeless data download files and cannot be compared. These charts will be removed from WISEdash in the near future.
Definitions of Key Terms
Primary Nighttime Residence: The living situation the student was in at the time the student was identified as meeting the definition of homeless.
Unaccompanied Youth: An indicator of whether or not homeless children or youth are in the physical custody of a parent or guardian.
For more definitions, see the WISEdash Glossary .
Counting Students
This section describes student counts in the Homeless data download files that start in 2018-19. See Cautions (above) for other years and data displays.
- District Totals: A student is counted as homeless in each enrolled district that reported the student as homeless. The student will be included in the count for every district that reported this student as homeless. This is considered a duplicated count. It cannot be summed to create a state total and is different from other WISEdash Data Download files.
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The Primary Nighttime Residence will be the first one reported by that district for the school year.
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The student will be counted as Unaccompanied Youth Status = Yes if they were ever reported as Unaccompanied by that district in that school year.
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State Totals: A student is counted as homeless if they have ever been homeless in any district in the school year being reported. This is an unduplicated count.
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The Primary Nighttime Residence will be the first one reported by any district for the school year.
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The student will be counted as Unaccompanied Youth Status = Yes if they were ever reported as Unaccompanied by any district in that school year.
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Other demographics will be the demographic data reported by the last district of enrollment for the school year with the exception of migrant status. Migrant status is set to Yes if the student ever had that status during the school year.
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Zero Totals: Zero totals do not appear in data download files. To see districts that have reported zero homeless students, please compare these data files to the districts listed in the Agency download file for the appropriate year.
Data Sources: Changes Over Time
Collection of student data through WISEdata for public schools began in the 2016-2017 school year. For 2016-17 and 2017-18 only the homeless status of each student was collected in order to report outcomes by that status (assessments, graduation, etc.). Federally required data on primary nighttime residence and unaccompanied youth was collected as aggregate counts through the WISEgrants ESEA End of Year report.
Starting in 2018-19, DPI began collecting primary nighttime residence and unaccompanied youth throughout the year from districts via WISEdata. At this time, the aggregate collection through WISEgrants ESEA End of Year report was discontinued. One reason for the change was so that unduplicated data could be reported federally at the state level. The other reason for the change was that data on primary nighttime residence by unaccompanied youth status was required starting in 2018-19.
Homeless status student data prior to 2016-17 was sourced from the Individual Student Enrollment System (ISES) Collection.
Useful Links
More About the Data
WISEdata Data Element Pages
Other DPI Webpages
Laws, Rules, and Guidance
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McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act and Non-Regulatory Guidance
- Guide to Collecting and Reporting Federal Data- Education for Homeless Children and Youth Data