This holiday season (and every other season) it is important to remember those less fortunate. Accordingly, the Center for Rural Pennsylvania produced the map above. It shows all of the school districts in the state. The districts highlighted in green have rates of student homelessness that are higher than the state rate of 1.89% for the 2023-2024 school year.
I spoke with the center and they directed me to the site Future Ready PA. You can look at your school district at their site. Comparatively, I looked at the districts in Cambria County and summarized them in the table below. Of the 12 school districts in Cambria, Greater Johnstown had the highest rate of homelessness. For the 2024-2025 school year, 5.7% of Greater Johnstown students are homeless which is the highest in the county. That is more than 1 out of 20 students.
The federal government defines a homeless student as “a student who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence.” Annually, districts are required by law to report the percentage of students economically disadvantaged, English language learners, in foster care, homeless, connected to the military, and in foster care. Altogether, I focused on the homeless, economically disadvantaged and those in special education.
The table below shows the trend for the Greater Johnstown School District from the 2019-2020 to the 2024-2025 school years. During this period, the percentage of economically disadvantaged increased from 85.8% to 97.3%, a 13.4% increase. The special education rate increased from 18.5% to 22%, an 18.9% increase. The homeless rate increased from 2.8% to 5.7%, a 103.6% increase. By comparison, the other rates hardly changed.
| Student Group | 2019-2020 | 2020-2021 | 2021-2022 | 2022-2023 | 2023-2024 | 2024-2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Economically Disadvantaged | 85.8% | 93.5% | 97.3% | 96.9% | 96.8% | 97.3% |
| English Learner | 1% | 0.9% | 0.8% | 0.9% | 1.2% | 1.3% |
| Foster Care | 1% | 0.8% | 0.8% | 0.6% | Not Available | Not Available |
| Homeless | 2.8% | 2% | 3% | 3.8% | 3.7% | 5.7% |
| Military Connected | 0.2% | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0% | 0% | 0.1% |
| Special Education | 18.5% | 20.1% | 18.8% | 20.1% | 22.2% | 22% |
The 5.7% rate of Greater Johnstown students being homeless is concerning. The Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates normally should be coming out soon. It depends on how far behind they are due to the recent shutdown. The unemployment rates for October and November have not been released yet due to the shutdown.
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