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Data

Information on Data Collection

NCHE Resources

Data Collection Briefs

The National Center for Homeless Education (NCHE) publishes a collection of briefs detailing updated guidance on the annual data collection process required for recipients of Education for Homeless Children and Youth (EHCY) grants per the McKinney-Vento Homelessness Assistance Act administered by the U.S. Department of Education (ED).

These briefs help State and Territorial Education Agencies navigate the data collection process, understand how standards may have changed from year to year, and how data should conform to submission requirements of EDPass, ED’s web based data collection system.

Briefs Overviewing EHCY Data Collection

The Data Collection Process and Students Experiencing Homelessness

This brief provides an overview of the data collection process by addressing who is responsible for data collections, how and when data are reported, what to expect during the data quality review conducted by ED, and what resources and help are available.

Updated May 2025

A Closer Look at the Consolidated State Performance Report, Part I: Manual Entry

This brief provides information about the data collection and submission process for data submitted manually in Part I of the Consolidated State Performance Report (CSPR).

Updated May 2025

Briefs Specific to Data Topics

File Specification: FS 118 –Homeless Students Enrolled

This brief provides information about the data collection and submission process for File Specification (FS) 118: Homeless Students Enrolled.

Updated May 2025

File Specifications: FS 150 and 151. – Adjusted-Cohort Graduation Rate and Cohorts for Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate

This brief provides information about the data collection and submission process for data on the adjusted-cohort graduation rate (ACGR) under Title I, Part A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) submitted under File Specification (FS) 150: Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate and FS 151: Cohorts for Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate.

Updated May 2025

File Specification: FS 170. – LEA Subgrant Status

This brief provides information about the data collection and submission process for File Specification (FS) 170: LEA Subgrant Status.

Updated May 2025

File Specification: FS 193. – Title I Allocations

This brief provides information about the data collection and submission process for File Specification (FS) 193: Title I Allocations.

Updated May 2025

File Specification: FS 194. – Young Children Served

This brief provides information about the data collection and submission process for File Specification (FS) 194: Young Children Served (McKinney-Vento).

Updated May 2025

File Specification: FS 195. – Chronic Absenteeism

This brief provides information about the data collection and submission process for File Specification (FS) 195: Chronic Absenteeism.

Updated May 2025

Homeless Education Data: Understanding and Leveraging Data for Greater Awareness
This NCHE tool addresses federal requirements to gather and share reliable, valid, and comprehensive data on children and youth experiencing homelessness (CYEH) while providing context on available data points and their uses. It also includes an editable Homeless Education Data Sheet with space for national, state, and local-level data customization that can be populated to build awareness around the unique experiences of CYEH.
View the Homeless Education Data: Understanding and Leveraging Data for Greater Awareness landing page to access the tool, accompanying webinar, and editable Homeless Education Data Sheet.
Housing and School Partnership on the  Point-In-Time Count
This NCHE fact sheet, geared towards a school audience, provides information about the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s annual Point-In-Time (PIT) count, and suggests strategies for how schools can help ensure the most comprehensive and effective count of youth experiencing homelessness.
Download Housing and School Partnership on the Point-In-Time Count.

Other Resources

Data.gov
Data.gov is the U.S. government’s official government-wide online data source. Created as part of President Obama’s commitment to open government and democratizing information, Data.gov will open up the workings of government by making economic, healthcare, environmental, educational, and other government information available on a single website, allowing the public to access raw data and transform it in innovative ways.
Download the Data.gov website.
Data Quality Campaign: Using Data To Improve Student Achievement
The Data Quality Campaign is a national, collaborative effort to encourage and support state policymakers to improve the collection, availability and use of high-quality education data and to implement state longitudinal data systems to improve student achievement.
Visit the Data Quality Campaign website.
Homeless Children and Youth in Public Schools
This webpage from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is a special data highlight from the NCES report entitled The Condition of Education 2017. The homeless education data highlight summarizes key data points from the 2014-2015 school year, including the number and percentage of public school students identified as homeless, the primary nighttime residence of homeless students, the location of homeless students (state; and rural, town, suburban, or urban), and more.
Visit the Homeless Children and Youth in Public Schools webpage.
Visit The Condition of Education 2017 webpage.
Homelessness: A Common Vocabulary Could Help Agencies Collaborate and Collect More Consistent Data
This June 2010 report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) addresses (1) the availability, completeness, and usefulness of federal data on homelessness, (2) the extent to which research identifies factors associated with experiencing homelessness, and (3) how differences in definitions and other factors impact the effectiveness of programs serving those experiencing homelessness. GAO reviewed laws, agency regulations, performance and planning documents, data, and literature on homelessness; and spoke with stakeholders, such as government officials and service providers, about potential barriers. 
Download Homelessness: A Common Vocabulary Could Help Agencies Collaborate and Collect More Consistent Data.
HUD Point-In-Time Count Implementation Tools
The Point-in-Time (PIT) count is an annual count of people experiencing homelessness on a single night in the last 10 days in January. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires its Continuum of Care (CoC) grantees to conduct an annual count of sheltered homeless persons. CoCs also must conduct a count of unsheltered homeless persons every other year (odd numbered years). Each count is planned, coordinated, and carried out locally by service providers and trained volunteers. This HUD webpage provides a variety of resources for planning and conducting the annual PIT count, including planning worksheets, survey tools, and data extrapolation tools. 
Visit the HUD Point-In-Time Count Implementation Tools webpage.
Interagency Data Disclosure: A Tip Sheet on Interagency Collaboration
This tip sheet, developed by the U.S. Department of Education in coordination with the the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, will help state and local homeless education programs, housing and human service agencies, and organizations serving homeless families, children, and youth coordinate their services better by disclosing student data with each other. The tip sheet discusses the privacy rights and protections in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and focuses on the following areas of data sharing:
1.Disclosure of aggregate data
2.Disclosure of individual student data with consent
3.Disclosure of individual student data without consent under applicable exceptions outlined in federal law.
The tip sheet also highlights the work of several communities that have implemented effective data sharing and integration strategies to serve homeless families, children, and youth more effectively. 
Download Interagency Data Disclosure: A Tip Sheet on Interagency Collaboration.
Privacy and Data Sharing
This webpage from the U.S. Department of Education’s Privacy Technical Assistance Center (PTAC) focuses on the topic of data sharing under FERPA, including exploring best practices and legal requirements for protecting student privacy while sharing data between educational agencies, partner organizations, and other third parties
Visit the Privacy and Data Sharing webpage.
Youth Count! Process Study
Youth Count! is a federal interagency initiative that aims to improve counts of unaccompanied homeless youth. Between December 2012 and January 2013, nine U.S. communities participated in the initiative by expanding their annual homeless Point-in-Time count efforts to increase coverage of homeless youth. This report details a process study of the initiative conducted by Urban Institute to identify promising practices that could be adapted and taken to scale to produce credible and useful data nationwide.
Download the Youth Count! Process Study.

Sample Forms, Materials, and Policies

Aligning Education and Housing: Data Sharing Agreement Template
This data sharing template from the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities (CLPHA) seeks to foster data sharing between housing and other sector organizations in order to improve efficiency, reduce duplication of efforts, and increase holistic care for low-income children. It draws upon successfully implemented data sharing agreements between housing authorities and other organizations. The template allows for flexibility by permitting the insertion and deletion of parts where indicated to fit community needs.
Download Aligning Education and Housing: Data Sharing Agreement Template.
Download Aligning Education and Housing: Data Sharing Agreement Template (for intermediary organizations).
 

Additional Homeless Data and Statistics Resources

NCHE Resources

Student Homelessness in America: School Years 2020-21 to 2022-23
This 2024 report provides a summary of demographic data collected by the McKinney-Vento Education for Homeless Children and Youth (EHCY) Program. The report includes an examination of data collected for the 2020-21, 2021-22, and 2022-23 school years. Information on the number of students experiencing homelessness, their primary nighttime residence, subgroups of students, and race/ethnicity of students experiencing homelessness is included.
Download Student Homelessness in America: School Years 2020-21 to 2022-23.
Federal Data Summary Reports from previous years
Addressing Homelessness in America: Serving Students with McKinney-Vento Funding, School Years 2017-18 to 2019-20

Using the most recently available data, this brief examines the number of school districts that receive McKinney-Vento subgrants and the number of students identified by those districts as children and youth who experienced homelessness.
Go to Addressing Homelessness in America: Serving Students with McKinney-Vento Funding, School Years 2017-18 to 2019-20.

Chronic Absenteeism Among Students Experiencing Homelessness in America: School Years 2016-17 to 2020-21

This brief discusses the number and rate of students who experienced homelessness using school- and district-level data from School Years 2016-17 through 2018-19. School Years 2019-20 and 2020-21 are provided in an appendix, along with a discussion of school district data that highlights differences in the rates of students who were homeless in rural, suburban, town, and urban districts.
Go to Chronic Absenteeism Among Students Experiencing Homelessness in America: School Years 2016-17 to 2020-21.

Graduation Rates of Students Who Experienced Homelessness in America: School Years 2017-18 to 2018-19

This brief discusses the four-, five-, and six-year adjusted cohort graduation rates of students who experienced homelessness using state-level data from School Years 2017-18 and 2018-19. Data for School Year 2019-20 is provided in an appendix, along with a discussion of school district data that highlights differences in the rates of students who were homeless in rural, suburban, town, and urban school districts.
Go to Graduation Rates of Students Who Experienced Homelessness in America: School Years 2017-18 to 2018-19.

LEA Summary Statistics and Notes for Homeless Students Enrolled Data: School Years 2013-14 to 2015-16
This NCHE resource includes summary statistics for publicly-released enrollment and demographic data on students experiencing homelessness who were identified by U.S. public schools during the 2013-2014, 2014-2015, and 2015-2016 school years. Data is collected by local educational agencies (LEAs, or school districts) and reported annually to the U.S. Department of Education through State educational agencies (SEAs). The data include information collected at the LEA level, and contain suppressed information for student counts equal to or less than two students.
Go to LEA Summary Statistics and Notes for Homeless Students Enrolled Data: School Years 2013-14 to 2015-16.

Other Resources

America’s Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2017
This annual report by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics presents a comprehensive look at critical areas of child well-being, including key indicators in seven domains: family and social environment, economic circumstances, health care, physical environment and safety, behavior, education, and health.
Download America’s Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2019.
Access reports from previous years (click on Past Reports in column on right side of page).
America’s Youngest Outcasts: A Report Card on Child Homelessness
This 2014 report from the National Center on Family Homelessness documents the number of homeless children in every state, their well-being, their risk for child homelessness, and state-level planning and policy efforts. Using findings from numerous sources that include well-established national data sets, as well as its own research, NCFH rank the states in four domains, and then develops a composite of these domains to rank the states from 1 (best) to 50 (worst). A page about the District of Columbia also is available.
Download America’s Youngest Outcasts: A Report Card on Child Homelessness.
Annie E Casey Foundation: KIDS COUNT Data Center
This website brings together data on the well-being of children collected by KIDS COUNT grantees from state and local sources. Users can access state-specific inventories of data from local sources, such as health departments, human services agencies, and schools. Users have access to raw data and can generate graphs, maps, rankings, and regional or state profiles.
Visit the KIDS COUNT Data Center website.
Child Trends DataBank
Child Trends Databank is the one-stop-shop for the latest national trends and research on over 80 key indicators of child and youth well-being. The DataBank includes statistics and information on such issues as social and emotional development, poverty and income, and education and skills.
Visit the Child Trends DataBank website.
Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC)
This U.S. Department of Education data collection reports data on key education and civil rights issues in our nation’s public schools on a biennial basis. The CRDC includes data on enrollment demographics, preschool, match and science courses, Advanced Placement (AP), SAT & ACT, discipline, school expenditures, and teacher experience. New data items for the 2015-16 CRDC include math and science classes taught by certified teachers, enrollment in Algebra I in Grade 7 and Geometry in Grade 8, offenses, pre-K discipline, days missed due to suspensions, and transfers to alternate schools.
Visit the CRDC webpage.
Falling Through the Cracks: Graduation and Dropout Rates among Michigan’s Homeless High School Students
This 2018 report from the University of Michigan explores high school dropout and graduation rates for Michigan students experiencing homelessness, as compared to students overall and other student subpopulations.
Download Falling Through the Cracks: Graduation and Dropout Rates among Michigan’s Homeless High School Students.
Identified Student Homelessness in Camden City Schools 2014-15 through 2018-19

Camden City School District is committed to identifying and serving students experiencing homelessness to ensure they receive a free, appropriate public education. This report considers data from students enrolled in district schools at the
conclusion of each of the 2014-15 to 2018-19 school years as well as publicly available data from other local education agencies in Camden. The hope is that this report offers insights into patterns of student homelessness. The ultimate goal is to innovate new ways of identifying and supporting students who experience homelessness.
Download Identified Student Homelessness in Camden City Schools.

National Center for Children in Poverty: 50-State Demographics Data Generator
This webpage from the National Center for Children in Poverty provides statistical information about low-income children focusing on various areas of interest, including family income level; parental presence, education, employment, and marital status; the child’s age and race-ethnicity; and family residential area and moves.
National Center for Education Statistics
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the primary federal entity responsible for collecting and analyzing data related to education in the United States.
Visit the National Center for Education Statistics website.
National Center for Education Statistics EDGE data tool
The NCES Education Demographic and Geographic Estimates (EDGE) program designs and develops information resources to help understand the social and spatial context of education in the U.S. It uses data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey to create custom indicators of social, economic, and housing conditions for school-age children and their parents. It also uses spatial data collected by NCES and the Census Bureau to create geographic locale indicators, school point locations, school district boundaries, and other types of data to support spatial analysis.
Check out the NCES EDGE data tool.
The Colorado On-Time Graduation Rate
This webpage from the Colorado Department of Education provides statistics on the on-time graduation of students in Colorado. Visit the Graduates and Completers by District, and Instructional Program Service Type link to access graduation data disaggregated by various subgroups, including students with disabilities, economically disadvantaged students, and students experiencing homelessness.

Visit the Colorado On-Time Graduation Rate webpage.

The Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress

This U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) report is submitted to Congress each year in 2 parts. Part 1 outlines the key findings of the annual Point-In-Time (PIT) and Housing Inventory (HIC) counts conducted in January. Part 2 provides an estimate of the number of people who experienced sheltered or unsheltered homelessness over the course of the year based on Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) data.

Download The 2020 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress
U.S. Census Bureau School District Poverty Estimates
The U.S. Census Bureau’s Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates program (SAIPE) produces annually updated school district poverty estimates to support the administration and allocation of Title I funding under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, as amended. These data include estimates of total population, number of children ages 5 to 17, and number of related children ages 5 to 17 in families in poverty.
Visit the School Districts Poverty Estimates for 2019 webpage.