The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act ensures the educational rights and protections of homeless children and youth so that they may enroll in school, attend regularly, and be successful. The legislation requires a local homeless education liaison in every school district to assist children and unaccompanied youth in their efforts to attend school.

This act states that children and youth who lack "a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence" are considered homeless.  This includes:

1. 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;
2. 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
3. Children and youths who are living in a cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus/train stations, or similar settings, and
4. Migratory children who qualify as homeless for the purposes of this subtitle because the children are living in circumstances described in clauses (1) through (3).

Students who are eligible under McKinney Vento will have the right to:

• receive a free, appropriate public education
• immediate enrollment in school, even if lacking paperwork normally required for enrollment
• attend school in school of origin or in the school in the attendance area where the family or youth is currently residing
• receive transportation to/from school of origin
• services comparable to those provided to other students, according to each student's need 

For more information or assistance, please contact the District McKinney Vento Liaison:

Kristen Bonie, Director of Student Services

Email: kbonie@d88a.org

Phone: (815) 725-8391