Hillsboro: District Cites 500-Plus Students in Unstable Housing; State Counted 678 in 2023-24

Hillsboro School District said Oct. 30 that “more than 500 students experienced housing instability last school year.” The figure came in a district post marking November as National Homeless Youth Awareness Month. The latest state counts are older: Oregon Department of Education files count 678 homeless students in the district in 2023-24, and 130 of them were unsheltered.

The district’s number is rounded, and the post, unchanged when Focus Hillsboro checked it Nov. 4, does not name the school year or explain how the students were counted. That leaves no exact count to set beside the state’s figures, which track students under the federal McKinney-Vento Act.

Six years of state counts

Oregon districts report their McKinney-Vento students to the state by where they sleep at night. Focus Hillsboro pulled Hillsboro’s row from each year’s file on ODE’s McKinney-Vento page, which posts district counts for 2018-19 through 2023-24.

Compiled by Focus Hillsboro from ODE files. *The 2018-19 file covers kindergarten through 12th grade; later files include preschool. Totals from 2019-20 on are our sums of the four columns. ODE notes that a student may be counted in more than one district in a year.

Doubled-up students, who share someone else’s home after losing housing or because of economic hardship, made up most of every year’s count, though that group shrank from 551 to 511 in 2023-24. The unsheltered count went the other way. By our calculation, it rose from 83 to 130, about 57%, while the total fell about 10%. The unsheltered share of the count went from 11.0% to 19.2%.

The low point in the table, 359 in 2020-21, falls in the pandemic years. ODE’s data poster says the statewide drop during COVID-19 “likely reflects identification challenges” rather than fewer homeless students.

Countywide, ODE’s 2023-24 file lists 2,847 McKinney-Vento students in Washington County, or 3.53% of enrollment. ODE’s files give no such share for Hillsboro and do not list its enrollment beside the counts. Focus Hillsboro did not calculate one from a separate data set. The district’s own fall headcount, covered in our October enrollment story, comes from a different report.

What the newest state figures show

As of Nov. 4, that ODE page still lists no count file for 2024-25 or 2025-26. Its McKinney-Vento Data Dashboard, linked from the same page, does show 2024-25, the newest year in its menu, but only as percentages “to protect student privacy,” the page says.

For Hillsboro in 2024-25, the dashboard puts 65.1% of McKinney-Vento students in doubled-up housing and 24.0% unsheltered, compared with 14.2% unsheltered statewide. It lists 17.4% of the district’s McKinney-Vento students as unaccompanied, meaning not in the physical custody of a parent or guardian.

The dashboard’s figures for earlier years do not match shares calculated from ODE’s own count files. For 2023-24, for example, it shows 23.9% unsheltered, while the file’s 130 of 678 works out to 19.2%. Neither the page nor the dashboard explains the difference.

Who qualifies, and what the law guarantees

The counts use the McKinney-Vento Act’s definition of homelessness. ODE’s page says children may qualify if their family lives in a shelter; in a motel or campground for lack of an adequate alternative; in a car, park, abandoned building, or bus or train station; or doubled up with others because of lost housing or economic hardship. Its poster adds that youth not enrolled in an Oregon public school, or not yet identified by school staff, are not in the data.

Under the McKinney-Vento Act, those students can enroll in school immediately, even without the documents normally required, ODE says. They may stay in their “school of origin” when that is the family’s preference and is feasible, with transportation on request. If the district disagrees with a family’s school choice, it must explain why in writing and describe the right to appeal.

The district’s McKinney-Vento Program page, which cites the law as 42 U.S.C. 11431, adds access to preschool and free school meals. Its list of qualifying situations also includes couch surfing, runaway youth shelters and substandard housing with problems such as mold or no heat or running water.

Reaching the district’s liaisons

Families can contact a McKinney-Vento liaison or visit the program page, the Oct. 30 post says. That page lists three McKinney-Vento staff members with call-only and text numbers, and both liaisons note “Hablo español.” It also offers a 2026-27 referral form, a request-for-information form and a dispute process for disagreements over eligibility or enrollment. The page does not list an email address.

Beyond the schools, the post points families to Community Connect at 503-640-3263 for a Washington County housing assessment. It also names HomePlate Youth Services, which serves ages 12 to 24, and Safe Place Shelter in downtown Hillsboro, for ages 12 to 20.

Residents who want to help will find a donation list on the same program page. It says items such as rain boots, children’s shoes, new blankets, backpacks and grocery gift cards are “always needed and gladly accepted.”

Top image: Illustrative image, 2017: school buses at the Dufur School District bus barn in Dufur, Oregon (not a Hillsboro facility). Photo: Ian Poellet, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped).