Ensuring Educational Stability for
Homeless Children and Youth
An Overview of the McKinney-Vento Act
and Advocacy Strategies for Keeping
Homeless and Displaced Students in
School
Sarah Biehl, Ohio Poverty Law Center/Ohio State Legal Services Association
Melissa Will, Southeastern Ohio Legal Services
Today’s Agenda
• A Growing Problem
• Barriers to Education for Homeless Children
• McKinney-Vento Act
–
–
–
–
–
Who are Homeless Children and Youth?
McKinney-Vento Personnel
Educational Rights of Homeless Children
Focus on School Stability
Removing Barriers
• Advocacy Strategies/Tips
A Growing Problem
The number of public school students who
are homeless is increasing.*
• 17% increase in homeless students in Ohio
last year
• News organizations note an “alarming”
rise in homeless students in Michigan
* Number of homeless Ohio students jumps: 17 percent increase to 9,396 sets state record,
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081219/NEWS04/812190345/-1/NEWS
Economy in Crisis: Homeless Students on The Rise in Northern Michigan,
http://www.9and10news.com/category/story/?id=143855
Educators See Spike in Number of Homeless Students,
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,489865,00.html
In Tough Times, Ranks of Homeless Students Rising: School districts find unprecedented increase in
numbers of homeless students across US,
http://abcnews.go.com/US/WireStory?id=6497841&page=3
Barriers to Education for
Homeless Children
• Enrollment requirements (school records, health records,
proof of residence and guardianship)
• High mobility resulting in lack of school stability and
educational continuity
• Lack of transportation
• Lack of school supplies, clothing, etc.
• Poor health, fatigue, hunger, anxiety/trauma
• Invisibility (lack of awareness)
• Prejudice and misunderstanding
• For unaccompanied youth: lack of adult guardian; need for
employment; credit accrual policies; concerns of capture by
authorities
Source: National Association for the Education of Homeless
Children and Youth, www.naehcy.org
McKinney-Vento Homeless
Education Assistance Act
• Title X, Part C of the No Child Left Behind Act of
2001 (which is up for reauthorization this year)
• 42 U.S.C. § 11431 et. seq.
• 34 C.F.R. Part 200
• Main Themes:
–
–
–
–
School stability
School access
Support for academic success
Child-centered, best interest decision making
Who Are Homeless Children and
Youth?
Must meet the McKinney-Vento definition of homeless:
Children and 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 (“doubled up”)
Living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, camping grounds due to
lack of adequate alternative accommodations
Living in emergency or transitional shelters
Abandoned in hospitals
Awaiting foster care placement
Living in a public or private place not designed for humans to
live
Living in cars, parks, abandoned buildings, bus or train stations,
etc.
Migratory children living in above circumstances
42 U.S.C. § 11434a(2)
Who Are Homeless Children and
Youth?
• NOTE! The McKinney-Vento definition of
homelessness is broader and more inclusive than
the HUD definition (42 U.S.C.
§
11302(a)).
• McKinney-Vento does not specify an age range
but applies to all school-aged children and youth
(as defined by state law); typically states allow
youth to attend school up to the age of 21
McKinney-Vento Personnel
• Every State Education Agency has an Office of
State Coordinator for the Education of Homeless
Children and Youth
– Collaboration responsibilities across agencies
and with communities
– Technical assistance to LEAs
– Compliance
– Professional development
– Data collection and reporting
42 U.S.C. § 11432(d)(3)
McKinney-Vento Personnel
Every Local Education Agency (school district) must
designate a liaison for students in homeless
situations
• Responsibilities:
– Ensure that children and youth in homeless
situations are identified through school and
community
– Ensure that homeless students enroll in and have full
and equal opportunity to succeed in school
– Make referrals for health, mental health, and other
services, and ensure that homeless children receive
Head Start and preschool programs administered by
school districts
42 U.S.C. § 11432(g)(6)(A)
McKinney-Vento Personnel
Local Liaison Responsibilities (Cont.):
– Inform parents, guardians, and youth of educational and
parent involvement opportunities
– Post public notice of educational rights
– Resolve disputes
– Inform parents, guardians, and youth of transportation
services, including to the school of origin
– Collaborate and coordinate with community and school
personnel
Educational Rights of
Homeless Children
• Broad mandate for all school districts to remove
barriers to school enrollment and retention by
revising policies and practices
• Remain in the school of origin (if in best interest)
• Transportation to the school of origin
• Immediate enrollment
• Access to programs and services
• Access to dispute resolution procedures
See 42 U.S.C. § 11432(g)(1)(H)-(J)
Focus on School Stability
•
•
•
Students can stay in their school of origin for the
duration of homelessness and until the end of the
school year when they find permanent housing, as
long as that is in their best interests.
“School of origin” is the school attended when
permanently housed or in which last enrolled (42
U.S.C. § 11432(g)(3)(G)).
“Best interests” generally means keeping
homeless students in their schools of origin, to the
extent “feasible,” unless this is against the
parents/guardians’ wishes (42 U.S.C. §
11432(g)(3)(B)).
Focus on School Stability
• Students can also choose to attend the local
school where they are currently staying (any
school others living in the same area are eligible
to attend)
– Regardless of whether the student chooses to
stay in the school of origin or enroll in his/her
local school, the student must be enrolled
immediately (42 U.S.C. § 11432(g)(3)(C)).
Removing Barriers
• School districts may not refuse to enroll homeless
children because they lack required documents
such as proof of residence, guardianship
paperwork, school records, health records, etc.
(42 U.S.C. § 11432(g)(3)(C)(i)).
• If a student does not have immunization records,
the liaison must assist immediately in obtaining
them, and the student must be enrolled in the
interim (42 U.S.C. § 11432(g)(3)(C)(iii)).
Removing Barriers
If a dispute arises over school selection or
enrollment in school:
• The child must be immediately admitted into the
school in which enrollment is sought
• The school must provide the student/parents a
written explanation of the school’s enrollment
decision, along with their rights to appeal that
decision
• The child and her/his parents must be immediately
referred to the district’s liaison to begin the dispute
resolution process
42 U.S.C. § 11432(g)(3)(E)
Removing Barriers
• The school district must provide students in
homeless situations with services comparable
to those provided to other students, including:
–
–
–
–
Transportation
Vocational and technical education
School nutrition programs
Gifted and talented programs.
42 U.S.C. § 11432(g)(4)(A)
Removing Barriers
Transportation –
• School districts are required to provide
transportation in 3 situations:
– Must provide transportation to school of origin upon
request of parent or guardian.
– For transportation to school other than school of origin,
must provide transportation comparable to that provided
to other students in district.
– If transportation is a barrier to enrollment or retention,
school must eliminate that barrier.
See 42 U.S.C. § 11432(g)(1)(J); (g)(4)(A);
(g)(1)(I); (g)(7).
Advocacy Strategies
• Know the broad McKinney-Vento definition of
homelessness and be on the lookout for clients
whose children could benefit from the law.
• Help educate other attorneys in your office about
McKinney-Vento – often clients in other types of
cases have children who could benefit, especially
in divorce cases, foreclosure, eviction, public
benefits cases.
• Help educate your client community about
McKinney-Vento’s benefits for homeless children.
• Know the liaisons in the districts in your region.
Advocacy Strategies
• Some districts – generally, larger urban districts –
have “funded” McKinney-Vento liaisons. This
means their positions are funded by the federal
government and their full-time job is to be the
homeless liaison for that district. They are
generally better trained and more knowledgeable.
• Most districts do NOT have funded liaisons.
Many districts simply designate the superintendent
or a principal as their liaison.
– Lots of unfunded liaisons don’t even know they are
the liaison!
– You can and should educate the district’s liaison
about his/her legal responsibilities under McKinneyVento.
Advocacy Strategies
• Many funded liaisons help coordinate trainings for
unfunded liaisons in the districts in their region –
offer to help with the trainings to liaisons and
others.
• Conversely, get to know the funded liaisons in your
service area and see if you can get them to call or
reach out to the unfunded liaison in the district in
which your client is having trouble.
Advocacy Strategies
• Remember that parents and students are entitled to
a written explanation of why a school district is
refusing to enroll a homeless child in a particular
school – often a lawyer asking for that written
explanation is enough to get a child enrolled and
end the dispute.
• Get a copy of your state’s dispute resolution
process.
– Dispute resolution processes require that the
parties make an effort to resolve the dispute at
the district level before involving the state
coordinator, but it often doesn’t hurt to call
your state coordinator if he or she is
good/helpful, especially for repeated problems
with the same school district.
Advocacy Strategies
• Final option: file a federal lawsuit to force the
district to comply with McKinney-Vento.
– Liability is based on negligence – a failure to exercise
reasonable care in following the federal law and providing
appropriate services.
– Look at the National Law Center on Homelessness and
Poverty website (www.nlchp.org) – it has lots of info
about pending and decided McKinney-Vento cases, many
of which are not reported on Westlaw or Lexis.
Advocacy: What about
unaccompanied youth?
Unaccompanied youth are often a particular challenge.
• Liaisons must help unaccompanied youth choose and enroll in
school, after considering the youth’s wishes and informing the
youth of his/her appeal rights.
• School personnel should be made aware of specific needs of
runaway and other unaccompanied youth.
• Schools are not required to allow unaccompanied minors to
sign their own forms and documents (for example, for field
trips, etc.), but they can.
– Options include letting the youth make his/her own decisions,
letting the local liaison make the decisions, issuing
“caregiver” forms allowing other adults to make decisions
Advocacy:
Unaccompanied Youth
• School districts cannot require caretakers to
obtain guardianship of youth after enrollment, or
within a specific number of days, in order for
youth to remain in school.
• Many homeless youth lose credits due to
absences, and school districts are required to help
them make up lost credits.
• You may need to argue that school district
policies that would prevent youth with “scattered”
or no accumulated credit from enrolling must be
revised because they are a barrier.
Advocacy: What about school
discipline?
• McKinney-Vento does not overrule state or
local discipline policies. If a student has
been suspended or expelled for behavior,
those policies apply.
– If, however, a student has been disciplined for
reasons related to homelessness (eg, excessive
absences), the student should not be penalized
and the policy should be revised.
Advocacy: What about homeless
students receiving special education
services?
• The local liaison must immediately assist with
getting the student’s IEP paperwork, and the IEP
must immediately be implemented.
• The IDEA requires school districts to appoint
surrogate parents for unaccompanied homeless
youth within 30 days.
• IDEA regs permit staff members of emergency
shelters, transitional shelters, independent living
programs, and outreach programs to serve as
temporary surrogate parents.
Questions? Need More Help?
• Sarah Biehl, Ohio Poverty Law Center/Ohio State Legal Services
Association: sbiehl@oslsa.org, (614) 221-7201 x. 130
• Melissa Will, Southeastern Ohio Legal Services:
mwill@oslsa.org, (740) 345-0850
• National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and
Youth: http://www.naehcy.org/
• National Center for Homeless Education:
http://www.serve.org/nche/m-v.php
• National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty:
http://www.nlchp.org/
• U.S. DOE non-regulatory guidance for school districts
on implementing McKinney-Vento:
http://www.ed.gov/programs/homeless/guidance.pdf