Beyond Wonder Woman: Fostering Staff Capacity to Advocate for Students Experiencing Homelessness

Student homelessness, an educational leadership challenge, is on the rise. Fortunately, the McKinney–Vento Homeless Assistance Act provides key supports. However, schools may struggle to implement McKinney–Vento and respond to student homelessness due to lack of awareness, limited funding, stigma, and confusion around political messages. Uniquely, this case is inspired by a 16-page comic based on the authors’ multi-year research on K–12 student homelessness in Houston, Texas, that foregrounds students’ lived experiences. Drawing from a distributed leadership perspective, the case explores how Principal Yamaguchi could build school capacity to meet the unique needs of two composite students experiencing homelessness, Angel and Ben.