Cheyenne Baker experienced homelessness while attending South Charleston High School in Kanawha County, West Virginia. (Photo by Esteban Fernandez for West Virginia Watch)
Cheyenne Baker became homeless while attending South Charleston High School. She was a straight-A student, but a arduous family life forced her to leave home.
“I had nowhere to go. During that time I was working at a hotel just trying to make ends meet and they allowed me to stay in one of the rooms,” said Baker, now 21. “I was just trying to figure out what to do from there. I started missing classes because I didn’t have transportation.”
Accordingly, more than 13,000 students in West Virginia are homeless Data from the West Virginia Department of Education. A separate one document The department said the number of homeless students was 15,101 in the 2024-25 school year.
During West Virginia’s student population has broken in over the past decade, the number of students identified by school staff as homeless has climbed. But legislation that has been introduced in the state Capitol for several years to help these children has not made it to the governor’s desk.
“We have a lot of kids we can help,” said Sen. Vince Deeds, R-Greenbrier. “The number is surprising, but unfortunately it is true.”
Senate Minority Leader Mike Woelfel, D-Cabell, said: “In the Senate, we stand up and every day someone says a prayer. Now, who are the least among us? I can’t think of anyone more deserving of our attention than homeless children wandering around.”
Homeless students are counted under federal law Guidelines known as McKinney Ventowhich defines a homeless student as a child who lacks “stable, regular, and adequate nighttime housing.”
In West Virginia, some of the students live in cars or shelters. Most are with family and friends, an unstable experience that impacts academic performance and behavior.
There are about 300 homeless students at Cabell County Schools, where Keith Thomas serves as director of health, wellness and student support. Their homeless students include children living at the Branches Domestic Violence Shelter in Huntington.
“We expect children to succeed, but it’s not fair to them if they don’t have a permanent place to live,” he said. “You just can’t concentrate. I’m not going to learn what four times three is if I don’t know where my next house is.”
Kristin Walterthe state Department of Education’s coordinator for the Office of Student Support and Wellness, said school staff who work closely with these students and their families often say the children suffer from constant moves and instability, a lack of basic needs and emotional trauma. There is a “fear of stigmatization and disclosure of their living situation,” she said.
“Increasing numbers may be related to increased training and awareness of the McKinney-Vento definition, which has resulted in more accurate identification and referral for support,” Walter said. “Rising housing costs, financial instability and greater collaboration between student support staff such as Communities In Schools and school counselors have also contributed, as these teams work together to ensure students are appropriately identified and supported.”
The thousands of homeless students identified were counted separately from the state’s majority of students 6,000 Foster children.
Baker said a teacher realized she was homeless and offered to move into her house so she could finish school.
“I am convinced she saved my life,” she said. “She pushed me to keep just showing up and I’m pretty sure she’s the reason I graduated high school because I was convinced I wouldn’t make it in that time.”
Her school’s McKinney-Vento coordinator also offered additional support, she said.
“I was constantly in a fight or flight mode. Even though I was staying with her, my clothes were still in a little suitcase because I was ready to say, ‘What if something happened?'” Baker said.
Federal funding for homeless students in West Virginia declined
Counties split the state’s allocation of McKinney-Vento federal funds to buy School supplies and pay for transportation and special support services for homeless students. It can also be used for other emergency needs.
West Virginia’s McKinney-Vento dollars fell to $689,517 this year – down from $817,803 last fiscal year.
There is no separate line-item funding for homeless students in West Virginia’s budget.
Thomas said the state Department of Education is doing a good job distributing McKinney-Vento funds to districts. Churches and local community groups help his county buy clothes for children and make sure they have food.
“We could use more money. Anyone could because the numbers are increasing,” he said.
Rodd Monts is director of public policy at SchoolHouse Connection, a nonprofit organization focused on education-based policies to address youth homelessness.
“Given the changes in D.C., many states are looking for ways to provide more resources to support students experiencing homelessness,” he said. “It’s challenging … because so many states are struggling with budget deficits and competing priorities, including in education itself.”
The bill to help homeless students will come back in 2026, but will it be funded?
At the state Capitol, recent Republican-led education reform took center stage School vouchers And Improving lagging reading scores. They existed some efforts to connect traumatized children with behavioral specialists.
Bills sponsored by Republican and Democratic lawmakers were introduced as early as 2017 Hire full-time coordinators for homeless students in more schools and help these teenage people Obtain identification documents. None of these measures were passed by the legislature.
“It’s just a topic that no one has talked about,” Deeds said.
With the next legislative session less than 60 days away, Deeds plans to push for a homeless student ID bill. He is still working on drafting the law, but said it would create a process for schools to help homeless students obtain crucial documents such as a birth certificate, ID card or replacement license for free.
Deeds, who works as director of public safety for Greenbrier County Schools, said making sure these children have identification is a safety issue.
“There are a lot of kids out here who may be couch surfing in our communities, and I’m not saying every single one is in danger,” Deeds said. “But I think it would be nice for our first responders, for whatever reason, when they come into contact with these individuals, to be able to say, ‘Hey, we realize you have identification that says you live in Charleston, West Virginia. But what are you doing at 15 in Morgantown?'”
The bill would require funding that Deeds said would be arduous to get out of the state budget because lawmakers have focused on passing tight budgets.
“I’ve had some conversations just trying to find a source of funding that already exists that might not be used as much,” he said. “That’s my goal so I don’t have to worry about a financial note.”
Similar laws have been passed in red states, Motts noted. including Alabama.
Wölfel introduced an invoice During the 2025 legislative session, a full-time, dedicated Homeless Education Coordinator would have been established in the state’s more urban counties to recognize and assist homeless students. The bill would have required a part-time homeless education coordinator in the state’s rural counties.
The bill was not implemented because Senate Republican leadership selected the bills that were considered in committees.
Woelfel has introduced similar measures in past legislative sessions and plans to reintroduce them next year. He said the state’s opioid epidemic has impacted the number of homeless students in the state.
“I think it’s worth it, but this bill has never moved one bit,” Woelfel said.
Monts would like to see the law passed in West Virginia linking student homelessness to lower academic achievement and graduation rates.
“We understand that in many school districts across the country, liaisons are juggling multiple roles and responsibilities and are quite overloaded as a result,” he said. “It’s also important to be able to increase the bandwidth and capacity needed to serve these students, and that’s one of the reasons we’d really like to move this bill forward.”
Walter said districts can employ McKinney-Vento money to fund a homeless liaison whose mission includes 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 stigma, and recognize that homelessness can take many forms,” she said, adding that districts must also have processes in place to identify students experiencing homelessness and connect them with community resources.
Baker is currently attending Fairmont State University and studying business information systems and Spanish.
She would like to see more staff in schools reach out to homeless students and provide them with spiritual support and guidance.
“I’m very lucky that I had someone there who could help me, because not many people have that support, and not many people have been strong enough to speak out about something like that,” she said.
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