The Center for Public Integrity in partnership with The Seattle Times, Street Sense Media and WAMU/DCist

Unhoused and Undercounted 

The investigation used federal data to reveal that an estimated 300,000 homeless students – disproportionately Black and Latino – were not being counted by their school districts and thus denied federal aid. The Center for Public Integrity made the data and a reporting kit available to other news organizations, resulting in stories by nine local newsrooms, including three who produced powerful, solutions-based packages with localized reporting. Almost immediately after publication, Congress increased funding for homeless-student support by 13%, and two U.S. representatives took steps to address undercounting in their respective states.