Confronting Inequality in Education
Education in the United States can be vastly unequal depending on who a student is and where they live. Our investigative journalists bring a diverse set of lived experiences and to report with and in service to the people most affected by our work. We use data-driven accountability reporting to expose discriminatory systems affecting public education and to bring attention to solutions, frequently through collaboration with local journalists.
BY THE NUMBERS
300,000
The number of homeless students that go unidentified and under-served by public schools.
5,000
Rough number of work hours the Unhoused & Undercounted team devoted to the project.
2 to 1
The rate at which Black students are referred to police compared to white classmates.
IN-DEPTH investigations
UNHOUSED AND UNDERCOUNTED
Homeless students needed help. Schools showed them the door.
The two boys should have been in elementary school. But for 71 days, the Bristol Borough School District in suburban Philadelphia would not enroll them. Attorneys for the students later explained they were newcomers. They first lived with a relative in New Jersey but couldn’t stay without risking her Section 8 housing voucher. They next…
CRIMINALIZING KIDS
When schools call police on kids
IMPACT FROM OUR REPORT
ACLU renews push for school policing law after our investigation
TAKE ACTION IN YOUR COMMUNITY
Click to find out what rights you have as a homeless student.
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RECAP OF LIVE EVENT
MORE ON EDUCATION
Inside the effort to make this city a better place for its Black residents
Schooling educators on homeless student rights
Shootings shape the debate on school policing
See how reporters across the country used our work to tell the story in their communities.
Making visible the hidden toll of student homelessness around the country
What happens to students experiencing homelessness? Federal law requires that public schools assist to help break what could become an inescapable cycle of hardship. But many of the students who need that aid fall through the cracks. Read our investigation Thousands of…
Criminalizing kids: What’s happening in communities
Students of color and those with disabilities face encounters with law enforcement at school at a higher rate than their peers. That’s according to an analysis of the latest student referral to police data from the Department of Education.…
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OUR IMPACT
ACLU renews push for school policing law after our investigation
The numbers are troubling, the images and stories indelible. Despite years of pressure on schools to stop policing students, we found that students continue to suffer from encounters with law enforcement in communities big and small. In…
Keep readingPublic Integrity reporting leads Virginia to decriminalize its students
Once Virginia schools begin in-person teaching again, educators and school resource police will have to follow two new laws aimed at stopping the criminalization of children’s behavior at school — legislation inspired by Center for Public Integrity reporting. One law…
Keep readingOfficials: Federal government must do better for homeless students
A leading advocate for homeless rights in Congress says the federal government must do a better job helping schools identify and assist students who are experiencing housing instability, a serious barrier to graduation for many youth. U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s comments come in the wake of…
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