Conditions of Children
New research from the UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools documents persistent disparities in academic achievement, graduation, attendance and school discipline, as well as substantial racial and geographic disparities among children who experience homelessness.
Research has long shown that strong family engagement at schools can improve student achievement and help combat chronic absence, but for the more than 1.5 million students experiencing homelessness, it’s even more crucial to helping children reach graduation.
Nearly 300,000 K-12 students in California experienced homelessness in the 2024–25 school year, according to new research from the UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools. This represents a new statewide high and a 10 percent increase from the 2017–18 school year
In the past six months, 29 percent of military-connected teenagers and young adults who participated in a recent survey reported thoughts of self-harm and 16 percent harmed themselves at least once, according to The Military Teen Experience in 2026: A Data-Driven Understanding of Our Military-Connected Teens and How We Can Help. Seventeen percent reported some level of suicidal ideation.
As Suicide Prevention Month is observed in September, programs like Laguna Beach High School’s Student Support Collective, a peer-led network aimed at promoting overall student well-being, highlight the importance that safe and supportive relationships can make for young people year-round.
Nearly half of teens have already seen artificial intelligence (AI)-generated explicit sexual material, and almost a quarter have seen it depicting themselves or someone they know, according to new research from Common Sense Media’s Youth AI Safety Institute.
National Immunization Awareness Month occurs each August, as families and school communities are busy gearing up for a new academic year and settling into the routines that will set them up for success. This preparation period offers the perfect opportunity for schools, as well as parents and guardians, to review student vaccination records, particularly at “check point” grades.
Measures of children’s well-being — including education, health, economic conditions and family and community — at the national and state levels are included in the 2026 Kids Count Data Book published in June by The Annie E. Casey Foundation.
Thirty-two percent of respondents to The Trevor Project’s 2025 U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ+ Young People reported experiencing verbal harassment in the past year while at school because people believed they were LGBTQ+.
About two-thirds of LGBTQ+ students reported feeling unsafe because of their identity in the 2024–25 school year, according to results from an annual survey by Glisten (formerly GLSEN).
