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, supports local communities in providing services and opportunities to young people, particularly runaway and homeless youth.

This report, published by the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, discusses key issues faced by homeless young adults and articulates effective short- and long-term strategies for addressing them. The report is organized around four main topics: health care, housing, education/employment, and social support. For each topic, the report offers brief descriptions of service barriers and short and long-term strategies for overcoming them.

Juvenile Runaways

The Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently released this guide as part of their Problem-Specific Guides Series. The guide describes the problem of juvenile runaways, highlights contributing factors, and provides suggestions on how a community can understand and respond to their local problem.

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.

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 Network for Youth (NNY) is the leading advocacy organization for runaway and homeless youth. NNY seeks to promote opportunities for growth and development for youth who face greater odds due to abuse, neglect, family conflicts and disconnection from family, lack of resources, discrimination, differing abilities, or other life challenges. NNY achieves this through advocacy on national policy related to at-risk youth and the provision of training, technical assistance, consultation services, and publications on the issue of supporting and protecting at-risk youth.

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.

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.

Listen to audio files from the February 8, 2007, Urban Institute panel on youth homelessness and what works to prevent it. National panelists analyze the efficacy of federal policies to reduce youth homelessness focusing on two groups: youth who age out of the child welfare system and runaways not eligible for child welfare services.

Unaccompanied Immigrant and Refugee Minors

This webpage from the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) provides important information about the challenges faced by unaccompanied immigrant and refugee minors in the United States, including background statistics and information on federal policy and its implications for states.

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.