A new case study from WestEd and the UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools examines how state and local policymakers can work together to better support migrant students, those experiencing homelessness, or children involved in the foster care or juvenile justice systems — groups known as “highly mobile youth.”
Children in these subgroups face persistent disruptions that make consistent educational and social-emotional support difficult to provide. “When systems remain siloed, these students are often overlooked, revealing a deeper need for improved coordination across education, housing, child welfare, and justice systems,” the report states.
Some of the numerous challenges that come with serving students in these group sis under identification of children, fragmented support when offered and more. For instance, youth involved with the justice system receive disconnected supports across education, justice and human services.
“Stigma and dispersed responsibility across agencies often leave justice-involved youth overlooked,” according to the report. “When districts, child welfare, and state agency systems share responsibility, it becomes difficult to ensure consistent accountability for students’ learning and well-being. This fragmentation creates gaps in access, continuity, and the quality of educational support.”
Similarly, the report identified barriers within the eligibility and identification process that impact migrant students’ access to services and noted that immigration-related stigma can prevent highly mobile students from being identified and served.
Other challenges included vague and inconsistent terminology across state systems that make it difficult to identify highly mobile students, align agency responsibilities and target supports effectively, as well as strict data protections which, while important, can slow coordination and limit system-wide improvement across child-serving agencies.
The case study examines Colorado and Washington’s approaches to serving highly mobile youth, highlighting two distinct models of cross-sector collaboration — one that’s locally driven and the other policy-led — that can provide a jumping off point for building more integrated, stable systems for serving these children.
Colorado and Washington share numerous commonalities in their experiences of supporting highly mobile youth populations, including recognizing overlapping needs and shared outcomes, relying on direct service providers and ensuring youth experiencing homelessness or foster care are prioritized in policy decisions.
Each case study includes survey responses from state and local leaders that shed further light on lessons learned related to state alignment and local flexibility; patterns of inclusion and omission in policy and practice across highly mobile populations; legislative codification and more.
Recommendations for better serving highly mobile students include combining state alignment with local flexibility, formalizing cross-agency expertise and relationships, developing cross-sector terminology for more cohesive, high-quality data systems and more.
