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The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act: An Overview

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Title: 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.

4
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

5
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

6
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

7
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

8
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

9
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

10
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

11
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.

12
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

13
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.

14
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.

15
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.

16
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.

17
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).

18
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.

19
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.

20
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.

21
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).

23
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.

24
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.

25
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.

26
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.

27
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.

28
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

29
Conclusion
  • This concludes this introductory presentation on
    the McKinney-Vento Act.Please call into the
    webinar now at
  • Dial (605) 990-0400
  • Enter code 628700
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