Students are entitled to certain rights and protections under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Assistance Act. Any child that is “without a fixed, regular and adequate residence” is homeless.

Homeless Services

The Stewart B. McKinney-Vento Homeless Student Assistance Act protects the rights of all homeless/highly mobile students. The act defines homeless children as youth between the ages of 2 to 18 years old who lack a fixed regular and adequate nighttime residence.

Who is Considered Homeless?
Per the McKinney-Vento Act, a homeless individual lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence, or has a primary nighttime residence that is:

• Live in a hotel or motel;

• Live in a shelter/transitional housing program; 

• Sharing housing with another family due to loss of housing, stemming from financial hardship;

• Live a trailer park or campsite due to the lack of adequate living accommodations;

• Live in an abandoned building, parked car, or other facility not designed as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings; 

• Lives with another person due to the death or incarceration of a parent 

• Lives as a youth on their own due to abandonment or runaway status

Children are not considered Homeless if they:

• are incarcerated or in youth correction facilities; 

• are in foster care unless they are temporarily placed in foster care because of a lack of shelter space;

• are from a family of migrant workers

Students are identified by our liaison or through referrals made by school employees, community members, city agency employees or self-referrals. Our liaison, Ms. Graika, oversees the immediate enrollment of these students in school, works with identified school staff to provide assistance to meet their academic and nonacademic needs and ensure that barriers to education are eliminated.

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