Eviction Lab Article Explores Impact of Eviction on Kids’ Educational Trajectories

Eviction Lab published an article, “Consequences of Eviction-Led Forced Mobility for School-Age Children in Houston,” in Sociology of Education that explores the consequences of eviction cases on students’ academic trajectories. Using court data on eviction cases filed in Harris County, Texas between 2002 and 2016, along with Houston Independent School District educational records, the authors determined that students whose parents face eviction cases are more likely to leave the school district than students not facing eviction. Students who remained in the same school district and experienced eviction filings were more likely to have switched schools and often relocated to schools with fewer resources. The study also found that students whose families faced evictions had an increase in school absences and an increase in suspensions among students who switched schools. The results of the study contribute to an existing body of research demonstrating the consequences of eviction filings, even when they don’t lead to formal eviction judgements. 

Each year, nearly 3 million children risk losing their homes through the eviction process. The study’s authors aimed to fill a gap in research examining how evictions affect classrooms and children’s education. The study analyzed court data of all eviction cases filed in Harris County, Texas between 2002 and 2016 and linked these cases to educational records accessed through the Houston Education Research Consortium (HERC), a partnership between Rice University’s Kinder Institute and eight Houston-area school districts. These educational records include enrollment, attendance, disciplinary, and grade data for more than 685,000 students enrolled in the Houston Independent School District between 2002-2016. The authors linked parents’ names and addresses from the enrollment records to defendant names and addresses in eviction cases. Over 13,000 students were identified to have parents who had an eviction filed against them at least once, with nearly a quarter of students in households who were filed against repeatedly. Data analyses revealed three key findings: eviction filings put students at higher risk of switching schools and leaving the district; eviction- driven school changes tended to be to schools with lower standardized test scores, less funding per pupil, and larger shares of economically disadvantaged students; and eviction filings and school changes led to increased absences, especially during the year of the eviction case or school move. The results suggest that students facing eviction who also change schools face increased suspensions in their new schools. 

The authors recommend that policymakers explore ways to provide additional eviction protections for families with school-age children, emphasizing that it is just as important to reduce eviction filing rates as it is for schools to strategize how to address problems associated with school mobility. Existing research has identified effective ways to do this, including increasing notice requirements, raising filing fees for evictions, providing legal counsel to those threatened with eviction, and providing emergency rental assistance. The “Eviction Crisis Act,” an OSAH priority bill, would provide emergency, short-term assistance to help stabilize households in crisis and reduce the harm and costs associated with evictions for students and families. The bill would also create a program to fund state and local governments to expand the use of landlord-tenant community courts that offer mediation services and increase the presence of social services representatives for tenants. 

Read the article here. Read more about the “Eviction Crisis Act” here.