This brief explains how the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act applies to unaccompanied youth displaced by disaster and how the Act can assist these students in accessing education and other needed support services.

This pocket-sized booklet for unaccompanied youth explains how schools can help youth who are living on their own without a parent or guardian. It is made of a durable, laminated paper to resist wear and tear and fits easily inside a back pocket.

This review is based on literature published between 1995 and 2005 on issues concerning unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness. It provides an overview of the challenges these young people face and includes research about why they leave their homes, how they live after leaving, and what interventions are being used to assist them.

This brief identifies the key provisions of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act dealing with unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness and offers strategies for implementation.

When Legal Guardians Are Not Present: Enrolling Students on Their Own

This brief identifies the key provisions of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act dealing with how to handle the enrollment process when legal guardians are not present and offers strategies for implementation.

This report from the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty provides summaries, legal citations, and analyses of laws affecting unaccompanied youth in the United States and six territories (American Samoa, District of Columbia, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands). More specifically, this publication covers many of the issues facing unaccompanied youth: youth in need of services; emancipation; status offenses, including running away, truancy, and curfews; the right to contract; definitions and consequences of harboring runaway youth; and service and shelter responsibilities and resources.

The Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB), part of the Administration for Children and Families of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, supports local communities in providing services and opportunities to young people, particularly runaway and homeless youth.
Download a joint collaborative memo between the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Education in support of the education of homeless youth.

The Homelessness Resource Center, hosted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, is an interactive online community of service providers; policymakers; researchers; and public agencies at federal, state, and local levels. The Center shares state-of-the art knowledge, evidence-based practices and practical resources to prevent and end homelessness through providing publications and materials, and online learning and networking opportunities.

Homeless youth surviving day-to-day on the streets are at constant risk of solicitation and sexual exploitation. Homeless youth are far more likely to be physically and sexually victimized than their peers who are housed, and they are more likely to experience repeated episodes of sexual assaults. This publication from the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH) reviews the research and practice implications for community-based services.

This bibliography from the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH) provides a comprehensive review of research literature on all issues related to youth homelessness. The survey, studies, and research included span over four decades and include a breadth of perspective and in-depth analysis. The research is organized by typological or categorical areas to help in the ease of review.
(NAEH Disclaimer: In publishing this bibliography, NAEH makes no judgment on the methodologies or quality of the research conducted, nor does it necessarily agree with all of the research findings presented in this review of research literature.)

Legal Tools to End Youth Homelessness

Published by the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, this Q&A booklet provides information about access to shelter/housing, public benefits, job training, public school, college and emancipation for unaccompanied youth.

This webpage from the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH) provides valuable information and resources on helping homeless youth transition successfully to adulthood. Resources include fact sheets, reports, presentations, best practices, and more.
*New Resource, March 2009*: Housing for Homeless Youth brief

The National Clearinghouse on Families and Youth (NCFY) is a free information service for communities, organizations, and individuals interested in developing new and effective strategies for supporting young people and their families. NCFY was established by the Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) to link those interested in youth issues with the resources they need to serve young people, families, and communities better.

The National Runaway Switchboard (NRS) gives help and hope to youth and their families by providing non-judgmental, confidential crisis intervention and local and national referrals through a 24-hour hotline (1-800-621-4000). Visit the NRS website for useful information for teens, parents, teachers, concerned adults, social service agencies, and law enforcement officials.
Learn about National Runaway Prevention Month (November)
Download NRS' Let’s Talk: Runaway Prevention Curriculum
Download NRS' Hablemos: Programa de Prevención para Jóvenes que Huyen de Casa
View NRS' Statistics on Runaways from Peer-reviewed Journals and Federal Studies
Download NRS' 2008 Reporter's Source Book on Runaway and Homeless Youth
Download NRS' Why Thy Run: An In-depth Look at America's Runaway Youth.

Project Safe Place provides access to immediate help and supportive resources for all young people in crisis through a network of sites sustained by qualified agencies, trained volunteers, and businesses.

This three-part publication series from the National Clearinghouse on Families and Youth discusses strategies for ensuring the financial viability and continued running of your youth program.
Part I - Secrets of the Fundraising World
Part II - Putting the "Fun" in Fundraising
Part III - Getting Support Where It Matters Most: Building a Donor Base in Your Community

This edition of The Exchange, the newsletter of the Family and Youth Services Bureau, focuses on serving youth experiencing homelessness, and includes a number of informative articles, including:
Youth Homelessness in Today’s Tough Economy;
In His Words: A Youth Speaks Out about His Homeless Experience;
Three Rules for Working With Unaccompanied Youth;
Coming in From the Shadows: Overrepresented Groups Among Homeless Youth;
Serving Overrepresented Groups of Homeless Youth;
Down for the Count: Getting the Numbers on Youth Homelessness;
How Many Homeless Youth Are There in My Community?; and
Resources for Identifying and Working With the Spectrum of Homeless Youth

On March 1–2, 2007, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) sponsored the second National Symposium on Homelessness Research. This publication is a compendium of the 12 papers prepared for and presented at the Symposium. Among the papers' topics are homeless families and children, homeless youth, and rural homelessness.

This 2008 report from the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth (NAEHCY) provides policy and practice recommendations distilled from over 100 interviews with NAEHCY members across the country. Recommendations focus on seven key findings that, implemented as a continuum of support, will assist in increasing enrollment, attendance, and success in school for homeless unaccompanied youth, and in reengaging young people who have left school.

In 2007, the California Research Bureau conducted a survey in which homeless and formerly homeless youth completed 208 interviews with their currently and formerly homeless peers across the state in order to find out about their experiences, the services they need, and the changes they would like to see happen in policy or law. This report presents the survey responses and findings.

This fact sheet from the Legal Center on Foster Care and Education explains basic information about unaccompanied youth and provides suggestions for how child welfare advocates can support unaccompanied youth, even without taking them into custody.