There are more than 13,000 homeless students in WV, and statehouse efforts to help them stalled

‘We have a lot of kids that we can help,’ said Sen. Vince Deeds, R-Greenbrier. ‘The number is surprising, but it, unfortunately, is accurate.’

By Amelia Ferrell Knisely | WV Watch

This article was originally published by West Virginia Watch, an independent, nonpartisan news service based in Charleston. You can make a donation here.

Cheyenne Baker became homeless while attending South Charleston High School. She had been a straight-A student, but a difficult family life forced her to leave her home.

“I had nowhere to go. I was working at a hotel during the time, just trying to get by, and they let me stay at night in one of the rooms,” said Baker, who is now 21. “I just tried to figure out what I was going to do from there. I started missing classes because I didn’t have transportation.”

There are more than 13,000 students experiencing homelessness in West Virginia, according to data from the West Virginia Department of Education. A separate document from the department said the number of homeless students for the 2024-25 school year was 15,101.

While West Virginia’s student population has plummeted over the last decade, the number of students identified as homeless by school employees has climbed. But legislation introduced for several years at the state Capitol meant to help these children has failed to make it to the governor’s desk.

“We have a lot of kids that we can help,” said Sen. Vince Deeds, R-Greenbrier. “The number is surprising, but it, unfortunately, is accurate.”

Senate Minority Leader Mike Woelfel, D-Cabell, said, “In the Senate, we get up and somebody says a prayer every day. Well, who are the least among us? I can’t think of anybody who’s more worthy of our attention than homeless children that are floating around.”

Homeless students are counted under federal guidelines known as McKinney Vento, which defines a homeless student as a child lacking “fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence.” 

In West Virginia, some of the students are living in cars or shelters. Most are doubled up with families and friends — an unstable experience that impacts school performance and behavior. 

There are around 300 homeless students in Cabell County Schools, where Keith Thomas serves as the director of health, wellness and student support. Their homeless student population includes children living at Branches Domestic Violence Shelter in Huntington. 

“We expect kids to succeed, but it’s not fair to them when they don’t have a fixed place of living,” he said. “You just can’t focus. I’m not going to learn what four times three is if I don’t know where my next house is.”

Kristin Walter, state education department’s coordinator for the Office of Student Support and Wellness, said school staff working closely with these students and their families often share that the children experience frequent moves and instability, a lack of basic necessities, and emotional trauma. There has been a “fear of stigma and disclosure of their living situations,” she said. 

“Rising numbers may be connected to increased training and awareness around the McKinney-Vento definition, which has led to more accurate identification and referrals for support,” Walter said. “Rising housing costs, financial instability and stronger collaboration among student support staff such as Communities In Schools and school counselors have also contributed, as these teams work together to ensure students are identified and supported appropriately.”

The thousands of identified homeless students were counted separately from the state’s nearly 6,000 foster children.

Baker said a teacher recognized she was homeless and offered to let her move into her home so she could finish school. 

“I’m convinced that she saved my life,” she said. “She pushed me to continue just showing up, and I’m pretty sure she’s the reason why I graduated high school, because I was convinced that I wasn’t going to make it during the time.”

Her school’s McKinney-Vento coordinator also offered extra support, she said. 

“I was in a constant state of, like, fight or flight mode. Even though I was staying with her, my clothes were still in a small suitcase, because I was ready for, ‘What if something were to happen?’” Baker said.

West Virginia’s federal funding for homeless students decreased

Counties split the state’s allocation of federal McKinney-Vento funds to purchase school supplies and pay for transportation and special support services for homeless students. It can also be used for other emergency assistance needs. 

West Virginia’s McKinney-Vento dollars decreased this year to $689,517 — down from $817,803 last fiscal year.

There’s no dedicated line-item funding for homeless students in West Virginia’s budget.

Thomas said that the state education department does a good job of distributing McKinney-Vento funds to districts. Churches and local community groups help his county purchase clothes for kids and make sure they have food.

“We could use more funds. Everybody could, because it’s a growing number,” he said. 

Rodd Monts is director of state policy for SchoolHouse Connection, a nonprofit focused on education-based youth homelessness policies.

“Given the changes in D.C., a lot of states are looking at ways that they can provide more funding for supportive students experiencing homelessness,” he said. “It’s a challenge … because so many states are dealing with budget deficits as well as competing priorities, including within education itself.”

Bill to help homeless students will return in 2026, but will it be funded?

At the state Capitol, recent Republican-led education reform has focused on school vouchers and improving lagging reading scores. There have been some efforts to connect kids experiencing trauma with behavioral specialists.

As far back as 2017, bills sponsored by Republicans and Democratic lawmakers have been introduced to put full-time homeless students coordinators in more schools and help these youth obtain identification documents. None of those measures have passed the Legislature.

“This is just a topic that nobody has been talking about,” Deeds said. 

With the next legislative session less than 60 days away, Deeds plans to push for a homeless students’ ID bill. He is still drafting the legislation but said it would create a process for schools to help homeless students obtain vital documents, including a birth certificate, state identification card or replacement license, at no cost.

Deeds, who works as director of Public Safety for Greenbrier County Schools, said making sure these children have ID is a safety issue. 

“There’s a lot of kids that are out here that may be couch surfing in our communities, and I’m not saying that each and every one is in danger,” Deeds said. “But I think it would be nice for our first responders, for whatever reason if they have contact with these individuals, to be able to say, ‘Hey, we realize that you’ve got an ID that says that you live in Charleston, West Virginia. But what are you doing in Morgantown at 15 years old?’”

The bill would need funding, which Deeds noted could be difficult to squeeze out of the state budget as lawmakers have focused on passing skinny budgets.

“I’ve had some conversations just trying to find a preexisting funding source that may not be utilized that much,” he said. “That’s my goal so I don’t have to worry about a fiscal note.”

Similar legislation has passed in other red states, Monts noted, including Alabama.

Woelfel introduced a bill during the 2025 legislative session that would have placed a full-time, dedicated homeless education coordinator in the state’s more urban counties to recognize and help homeless students. The bill would have required that a part-time homeless education coordinator be required in the state’s rural counties.

The bill didn’t move as the Senate’s Republican leadership selected the bills that were vetted in committees.

Woelfel has introduced similar measures during past legislative sessions and plans to reintroduce it next year. He said the state’s opioid epidemic has impacted the state’s rate of homeless students. 

“I think it’s worthwhile, but this bill never moved a bit,” Woelfel said.

Monts would like to see the legislation pass in West Virginia, connecting student homelessness to lowered academic performance and graduation rates. 

“We do understand that in many school districts around the country, liaisons are wearing multiple hats and juggling responsibilities, and as a result, being stretched pretty thin,” he said. “Being able to increase the amount of bandwidth and capacity you have to serve those students is also important too, which is one of the reasons we’d really like to see this bill move forward.”

Walter said that districts can use McKinney-Vento funds to pay for a homeless liaison, whose work would include identifying students, helping them enroll in school, connecting them with services and removing barriers to learning.

“Additional funding is always helpful, but it is equally important to ensure staff are educated and trained to be resourceful, understand the best ways to address mental health and social stigmas, and recognize that homelessness can take many forms,” she said, adding that districts also need to have processes in place to identify students experiencing homelessness and connect them with community resources.

Baker is currently attending Fairmont State University studying information systems management and Spanish.

She’d like to see more staff in schools reaching out to homeless students, offering mental support and guidance. 

“I feel very lucky that I had someone there that could help me, you know, because not a lot of people have that support, and not a lot of people were strong enough to come forward about something like that,” she said.