Students In Transition
What It Is...
The Education for Homeless Children and Youth (EHCY) program, authorized under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (McKinney-Vento Act), is designed to address the needs of homeless children and youth and ensure educational rights and protections for these children and youth.
Under the McKinney-Vento Act, SEAs must ensure that each homeless child and youth has equal access to the same free, appropriate public education, including a public preschool education, as other children and youth. Homeless children and youth must have access to the educational and related services that they need to enable them to meet the same challenging state academic standards to which all students are held.
All districts, regardless of whether they receive a McKinney-Vento sub-grant, must comply with required identification, reporting, and service responsibilities to homeless children and youth (such as enrollment, transportation, free lunch, equal access to education and extracurricular activities, services, and more).
Districts engage in coordination and collaboration with other departments, local organizations, and agencies to provide comprehensive services to homeless children and youth and their families. Districts also offer expedited evaluations of the needs of homeless children to help them enroll in school, attend regularly, and achieve success.
The local homeless education program can be funded through two funding sources: the McKinney-Vento Sub-grant and Title, I Part A homeless set-aside funds. The local liaison should consult with the state McKinney-Vento coordinator if uncertain about whether an activity can be supported by one of the specified funding sources.
Under Subtitle B of Title VII of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, § 725, homeless children and youths mean 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 a similar reason; are living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to the lack of alternative adequate accommodations; are living in emergency or transitional shelters, or are abandoned in hospitals;
- children and youths who have a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designed for or ordinarily used as regular sleeping accommodation for human beings;
- children and youths who are living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, or similar settings; and
- migratory children (as defined in § 1309 of the ESSA) who qualify as homeless because they are living in circumstances described in this definition.
Your eligible children 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 documents;
- Enroll in the local school; or continue attending their school of origin (the school they attended when permanently housed or the school in which they were last enrolled), if that is your preference and is feasible;
- Receive transportation to and from the school of origin, if you request this; and,
- Receive educational services comparable to those provided to other students, according to your children's need
Scott County Schools identifies homeless students and refers them to the Homeless Coordinator. Services are arranged for these students as needed including transportation.