Somerset Academies of Texas Counseling

The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, ensures the educational rights and protections for children and youth experiencing homelessness.

Homelessness is defined as:

Having a lack of fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence and includes
Children and youth who are sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or similar reasons
Children or youth 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;
Children or youth who have a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designed for or ordinarily used as regular sleeping accommodation for human beings;
Children or youth living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, or similar settings.

McKinney Vento Liaison

Florencio Zepeda Jr., MPA

Director of Federal Programs | Academica Southwest

(E) fzepeda@academicasw.org

Parent/Student Rights

- Enroll and attend school, no matter where they lived or how long they have lived there
- All services provided comparable to those offered to non-homeless children and youth, including transportation
- Choice to remain in their School of Origin or transfer to a school in their current attendance area
- Enrollment in school despite the lack of a permanent address or the lack of school records
- Access to Free Lunch Program
- Right to Dispute Resolution when denied school enrollment
- Enroll in school without giving a permanent address, school records or immunization documents required for school enrollment

Federal Law

The Stewart B. McKinney Assistance Act of 1994 is the primary federal legislation that directly addresses the education of homeless children and youth. The McKinney Act is important in educating homeless children for the following reasons:

- It defines homelessness;
- It requires that all homeless youth have access to a free and appropriate education;
- It requires every state to review and revise all laws, regulation, practices or policies that may act as a barrier to the enrollment, attendance, or success in school of homeless children;
- It stipulates that homelessness alone should not be sufficient reason to separate students from the mainstream school environment;
- It requires that homeless children and youth have access to the education and services they need to ensure them an opportunity to meet the same challenging state standard to which all students are held;
- It requires state education agencies to appoint a Coordinator for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth;
- It requires each state to adopt a plan to provide for the education of each homeless child or homeless youth within the state; and
- It allocates money for the states to distribute in competitive, descretionary grants for programs that are created to meet the needs of homeless children.

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McKinney Vinto Liaison

Parent/Student Rights

Federal Law

Become a part of the Somerset Academies Texas Family

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