MV Homeless Education Act

The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act defines “homeless children and youths” as “individuals who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence.” However, because the circumstances of homelessness vary with each family’s or unaccompanied youth’s situation, determining the extent to which the family or youth fits the definition must occur on a case-by-case basis.

Enrollment staff and/or the local homeless education liaison must gather and analyze information from the family or youth and make an appropriate determination of eligibility. Expeditious determination of eligibility and immediate school enrollment are critical to the child’s educational continuity.

Understanding which students qualify under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act of 2001 is an important component to ensuring that we are carefully identifying and meeting all students educational needs and giving the appropriate consideration to each student's economic status and situation when determining the best interest of the students we serve.

According to the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act of 2001 - Title X, Part C of the No Child Left Behind Act, Sec 725, the term “homeless children and youth”—
        A. means individuals who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence...; and

        B. includes —

            i. 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 are awaiting foster care placement;

            ii. 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

           iii. children and youths who are living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, or similar settings; and

           iv. migratory children who qualify as homeless for the purposes of this subtitle because the children are living in circumstances described in clauses (i) through (iii).