McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance

McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act

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The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act is the primary piece of federal legislation dealing with the education of children and youth experiencing homelessness. The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act is also known as Title IX, Part A, of the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 (ESSA). The act was created to assist qualifying students in meeting the basic needs in order to achieve academic success.

Homeless students are children and youth who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence.

Unaccompanied youth are children and youth who are not in the physical custody of a parent or guardian and who also lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence.

Homeless children and youth include those who are:

• Sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason.

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

• Living in emergency or transitional shelters.

• Living in a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designed for, or ordinarily used as, regular sleeping accommodations for human beings.

• Living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, or similar settings.

• Living in migratory circumstances that qualify as homeless because the child lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence.

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Children and youth experiencing homelessness have the right to:

• Receive a free, appropriate public education.

• Enroll in school immediately, even if lacking documents normally required for enrollment.

• Enroll in school and attend classes while the school gathers needed records.

• Enroll in the local attendance-area school or continue attending their school of origin (the school attended when permanently housed or the school in which they were last enrolled), if that is the parent’s, guardian’s, or unaccompanied youth’s preference and it is feasible. If the school district believes the selected school is not in the student’s best interest, the district must provide the parent, guardian, or unaccompanied youth with a written explanation of its position and inform them of the right to appeal.

• Receive transportation to and from the school of origin, if requested by the parent, guardian, or unaccompanied youth.

• Receive educational services comparable to those provided to other students, according to the student’s needs.