McKinney Vento Central Stickney School District Liaison: Jennifer Toschi 708-458-1152

McKinney-Vento: Federal homeless education legislation

The McKinney-Vento Act was enacted due to the numerous barriers homeless children faced in obtaining a free, appropriate public education.

This act guarantees homeless children and youth the following:

• The right to immediate enrollment in school, even if lacking paperwork normally required for enrollment.

• The right to attend school in his/her school of origin (if this is requested by the parent and is feasible) or in the school in the attendance area where the family or youth is currently residing.

• The right to receive transportation to his/her school of origin, if this is requested by the parent.

• The right to services comparable to those received by housed schoolmates, including transportation and supplemental educational services.

• The right to attend school along with children not experiencing homelessness. Segregation based on a student's status as homeless is strictly prohibited.

• The posting of homeless students rights in all schools and other places around the community.

Who is homeless?

The term "homeless children and youth" as defined by the McKinney-Vento Act;

Means individuals who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence; and includes:

• Children and youths who are sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or similar reason; are living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to the lack of alternative accommodations; are living in emergency or transitional shelters; are abandoned in hospitals; or a awaiting foster care placement.

• Children and youths who have a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designed for or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings.

• Children and youths who are living in a cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus/train stations, or similar settings.

• Migratory children who qualify as homeless for the purposes of this subtitle because the children are living in circumstances described above.

• Unaccompanied Minor.

Unaccompanied youth are protected under the McKinney Vento Act. An unaccompanied youth includes a youth not in the physical custody of a parent or guardian. This would include runaways living in runaway shelters, abandoned buildings, cars, on the streets, or in other inadequate housing; children and youth denied housing by their families; school-age unwed mothers living in homes for unwed mothers because there is no other housing available.