Educating

Homeless Students

Michelle Allison

Homeless Education Liaison, LISD

Who is homeless?

McKinney-Vento

Homeless Education Assistance Act

•Anyone who lacks a fixed, permanent and adequate night time dwelling.

•Shelters, motels

•Cars, campers, abandoned buildings, barns, sheds, outside

•Living with another family due to lack of income or affordable housing

•Unaccompanied youth

•Foster care placements less than 6 months long

Homeless students have the right to:

•attend their school of origin and receive transportation to that school.

•attend the school in the attendance area they are homeless in.

•attend the school in dispute while going through the dispute resolution process.

The law mandates:

•an immediate and barrier free enrollment

•even without birth certificate, immunization record, proof of residency

•immediate enrollment in free lunch program

•transportation

•Title I set asides

•homeless liaison in every district

Case Study

•A seventeen year old, living with friends in Adrian wants to enroll at Madison High School. She went there as a freshman.

•She went to Adrian High School for a month this year and was dropped due to lack of attendance.

•What does the law provide for her?

•A Tecumseh family was evicted and is now living at a shelter in Adrian.

•A fifteen year old falls asleep in class and is sent to the counselor. He reports sleeping in a hotel last night.

•Letters sent home come back to the school stamped “addressee no longer lives here.” The secretary reaches the mother on her cell phone. The mother states there must be a mistake, she hasn’t moved and she will come pick up the mail.

•A sixteen year old lives with his grandparents during the week so his attendance area will be in the school district he wants to play football in. On the weekends he goes home to live with his parents, who live in a different school district.

•A seventeen year old girl asks her school counselor what form she needs to fill out because she is going to go live with her boyfriend in a neighboring school district and will be attending school there.

•A family, with four children attending Blissfield schools, was evicted. They moved into a shelter in Adrian. Six weeks later they found an apartment in Madison school district.

•An eleventh grader is staying with her boyfriend’s family because she wouldn’t follow her mother’s rules.

She wants to register in the school district where her boyfriend lives.

Her parents will not sign for her to register at that school because they want her to come home. Her parents live in another district.

The Role of School

“What homeless children need most of all is a home…but while they are experiencing homelessness, what they need most is to remain in school. School is one of the few stable, secure places in the lives of homeless children and youth --- a place where they can acquire the skills they need to help them escape poverty.”

National Coalition for the Homeless