The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act: An Overview

1
The McKinney-VentoHomeless Assistance ActAn
Overview

• National Center for Homeless Education
• Toll-free Helpline 800-308-2145 or
  homeless_at_serve.org

2
Training Agenda

• After watching this presentation, call into the
  conference call to participate in group learning
  and networking activities.

• The conference call portion of the training is
  critical to getting the most out of your webinar
  experience.

3
Questions?

• If you have questions during the presentation,
  please submit them in the chat pod at the left of
  the screen. NCHE will be reviewing them and
  organizing them into topics to be covered during
  the conference call.

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Goals for Today

• Learn about services and resources from NCHE
• Become familiar with the basic concepts of the
  McKinney-Vento Act
• Learn good practices and implementation
  strategies by networking with colleagues

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About NCHE

• U.S. Department of Educations homeless education
  technical assistance and information center
• Website www.serve.org/nche

• Helpline 800-308-2145 or homeless_at_serve.org

• Listserv contact bhartnes_at_serve.org

• NCHE products www.serve.org/nche/products.php

• Local Liaison Toolkit www.serve.org/nche/training
  .php

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The McKinney-Vento Act

• Subtitle VII-B of the McKinney-Vento Homeless
  Assistance Act reauthorized by Title X, Part C
  of NCLB

• Main themes of the McKinney-Vento Act
• School access
• School stability
• Support for academic success
• Child-centered, best interest decision making
• Critical role of the local homeless education
  liaison

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Local Liaisons

• Every school district must designate a local
  homeless education liaison.
• Local liaison responsibilities include
• Identifying homeless children and youth
• Ensuring that homeless students enroll in and
  have full and equal opportunity to succeed in
  school
• Linking homeless students with educational and
  other services, including preschool and health
  services

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Local Liaisons (cont)

• Informing parents, guardians, or youth of
  educational rights
• Ensuring the public posting of educational rights
• NCHE Educational Rights Posters are available at
  www.serve.org/nche/products.php.

• Ensuring that disputes are resolved promptly
• Collaborating with other district programs and
  community agencies

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Who Qualifies?

• Children or youth who lack a fixed, regular, and
  adequate nighttime residence, including

• Sharing the housing of others due to loss of
  housing, economic hardship, or similar reason
  (doubling up)

• Living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, camping
  grounds due to the lack of adequate alternative
  accommodations

• Living in emergency or transitional shelters
• Abandoned in hospitals

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Who Qualifies? (cont)

• Awaiting foster care placement
• Living in a public or private place not designed
  for humans to live
• Living in cars, parks, abandoned buildings,
  substandard housing, bus or train stations, or a
  similar setting

• Migratory children living in the above
  circumstances
• Unaccompanied youth living in the above
  circumstances

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Determining Eligibility

• Follow a process
• Step 1. Get the facts.
• Sample enrollment questionnaire at
  www.serve.org/nche/downloads/toolkit/app_d.pdf

• Step 2. Analyze the facts.
• Does the living situation fit into one of the
  specific examples of homelessness listed in the
  law?
• Does the living situation fit another type of
  situation that is not fixed, regular, and
  adequate?
• Step 3. Get additional input.
• Determining Eligibility brief at
  www.serve.org/nche/briefs.php

• Remember the importance of making case-by-case
  determinations.

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School Selection

• Students experiencing homelessness have the right
  to attend one of two schools

• Local Attendance Area School
• any public school that students living in the
  same attendance area are eligible to attend
• School of Origin
• school attended when permanently housed or
• school in which last enrolled

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School Stability

• When deciding which school the student will
  attend, the best interest of the student is the
  top priority.
• Best interest keep homeless students in their
  schools of origin, to the extent feasible, unless
  this is against the parents or guardians wishes
• Local liaisons work together with unaccompanied
  youth to determine which school would be in the
  youths best interest to attend.

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School Selection

• Students can continue attending their school of
  origin the entire time they are homeless, and
  until the end of any academic year in which they
  move into permanent housing.

• If a student becomes homeless in between academic
  years, he or she can continue attending the
  school of origin for the following academic year.

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Feasibility

• U.S. Department of Education possible factors to
  consider when determining feasibility (2004
  Non-Regulatory Guidance, p.14)
• The age of the child or youth
• The distance of a commute and the impact it may
  have on the students education
• Personal safety issues
• The students need for special instruction (e.g.,
  special education and related services)
• The length of anticipated stay in a temporary
  shelter or other temporary location
• The time remaining in the school year.
• The placement determination should be a
  student-centered, individualized determination.

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Transportation

• Districts must provide homeless students with
  transportation to and from their school of
  origin, at a parents or guardians request (or
  at the liaisons request for unaccompanied
  youth).
• If the students temporary residence and the
  school of origin are in the same district, that
  district must provide or arrange transportation.

• If the student is living outside of the district
  of origin, the district where the student is
  living and the district of origin must determine
  how to divide the responsibility and cost, or
  they must share the responsibility and cost
  equally.

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Transportation (cont)

• Districts must provide students in homeless
  situations with transportation services
  comparable to those provided to other students.
• School districts must eliminate barriers to the
  school enrollment and retention of students
  experiencing homelessness (including
  transportation barriers).

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Enrollment

• States and districts must develop, review, and
  revise policies to remove barriers to the school
  enrollment and retention of homeless children and
  youth.
• The terms enroll and enrollment include attending
  classes and participating fully in school
  activities.
• The McKinney-Vento Act supersedes state or local
  law or practice when there is a conflict U.S.
  Constitution, Article VI.

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Enrollment (cont.)

• Homeless children and youth have the right to
  enroll in school immediately, even if they do not
  have documentation normally required for
  enrollment.

• If a student does not have immunizations, or
  immunization or medical records, the local
  liaison must assist immediately in obtaining
  them, and the student must be enrolled in the
  interim.
• Enrolling schools must obtain school records from
  the previous school, and students must be
  enrolled in school while records are obtained.
• Schools must make their records available when a
  student transfers to a new school or district.

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Dispute Resolution

• Whenever a dispute arises, the parent, guardian,
  or youth must be provided with a written
  explanation of the schools decision, including
  the right to appeal.
• The school must refer the parent, guardian, or
  youth to the local liaison to carry out the
  dispute resolution process as expeditiously as
  possible, in accordance with the State Plan.
• While a dispute is being resolved, the student
  must be admitted immediately to the requested
  school and provided with services.
• Documentation should be kept for all local
  liaison interventions with parents, and not just
  formal disputes.

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Unaccompanied Youth

• Unaccompanied youth a youth not in the physical
  custody of a parent or guardian
• To qualify for services, the student must also
  meet the Acts definition of homeless.

• States must make special efforts to identify and
  serve homeless youth.
• School personnel must be made aware of the
  specific needs of runaway and homeless youth.
• Local liaisons must help unaccompanied youth
  choose and enroll in a school, after considering
  the youths wishes, and inform the youth of his
  or her appeal rights.

22
Preschool-Aged Children

• State plans must describe procedures that ensure
  that homeless children have access to public
  preschool programs.
• Local liaisons must ensure that families and
  children have access to Head Start, Even Start,
  and other public preschool programs administered
  by the school district.

• The reauthorized Head Start Act (Dec 2007)
  includes many provisions to serve young children
  who are homeless additional information is
  available at www.naehcy.org/dl/headstartsum1207.pd
  f.
• IDEA and McKinney-Vento staff must work together
  to ensure that young homeless children who may
  need special education services are identified,
  evaluated, and served (IDEAs Child Find
  provision).

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Access to Services

• Students experiencing homelessness must have
  access to services for which they are eligible,
  including special education, programs for English
  learners, gifted and talented programs, and
  vocational and technical education.
• Homeless students are automatically eligible to
  receive free school meals the USDA permits local
  liaisons and shelter directors to qualify
  homeless students for free meals by providing a
  list of names with effective dates.

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Access to Services (cont)

• IDEA includes provisions that ensure the timely
  assessment, inclusion, and continuity of services
  for homeless children and youth with
  disabilities additional information is available
  at www.serve.org/nche/ibt/sc_spec_ed.php.
• Undocumented students have the same right to
  attend public school as U.S. citizens (Plyler v.
  Doe) and are covered by the McKinney-Vento Act to
  the same extent as other eligible students.

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Title I, Part A

• Homeless students are automatically eligible to
  receive Title I, Part A services.
• School districts must set aside funds as are
  necessary to provide Title IA services comparable
  to those provided to children in Title IA schools
  to serve homeless children who do not attend
  Title IA schools this may include providing
  educational support services to children in
  shelters and other locations where homeless
  children may live.

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Title I, Part A (cont)

• Services for homeless students in both Title IA
  and non-Title IA schools should be comparable to
  those provided to non-homeless students in Title
  IA schools.
• School districts can choose to provide services
  that are not ordinarily provided to other Title
  IA students and that are not available from other
  sources, according to the need of the homeless
  student.

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Segregation and Stigmatization

• States are prohibited from segregating homeless
  students in separate schools, separate programs
  within schools, or separate settings within
  schools.

• States and school districts must adopt policies
  and practices to ensure that homeless children
  and youth are not segregated or stigmatized on
  the basis of their status as homeless.

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For more information

• NCHE website www.serve.org/nche
• NCHE helpline 800-308-2145 or homeless_at_serve.org
• NCHE National PartnersNational Association for
  the Education of Homeless Children and Youth
  (NAEHCY) www.naehcy.orgNational Law Center on
  Homelessness and Poverty (NLCHP) www.nlchp.org

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Conclusion

• This concludes this introductory presentation on
  the McKinney-Vento Act.Please call into the
  webinar now at
• Dial [phone]
• Enter code 628700