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A 14-year-old in Toledo, Ohio comes home in February to find the family has to leave the apartment by Friday. They move in with an aunt across the river, in a different school district. She assumes she will have to switch schools mid-year. Under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, a federal law found at 42 U.S.C. 11431 and after, she does not have to. It covers far more families than the word 'homeless' suggests.
Who counts: the definition is wider than a shelter
The law's definition, in 42 U.S.C. 11434a, covers children and youths who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence. It then lists what that includes: sharing someone else's housing because of loss of housing or economic hardship (schools call this 'doubled up'), living in a motel, hotel, trailer park, or campground because there is no other adequate option, living in an emergency or transitional shelter, or being abandoned in a hospital.
So the student staying at her aunt's apartment after an eviction qualifies. So does a 17-year-old sleeping on a friend's couch after being told to leave home. The law has a name for a student who is not with a parent or guardian: an 'unaccompanied youth', and it gives that student the right to make the school choices a parent would normally make.
School of origin, transportation, and the best-interest test
The 'school of origin' is the school the student attended when permanently housed, or the school where the student was last enrolled, including a preschool. Section 11432(g)(3) tells the district to keep the student in the school of origin for the whole period of homelessness, and for the rest of the school year if the family finds permanent housing mid-year. The other option is enrolling in whatever school serves the place the student is now sleeping. The family, or the unaccompanied youth, picks.
The district must presume that staying at the school of origin is in the student's best interest. If it decides otherwise, it has to give the parent or youth a written explanation and tell them how to appeal. If two districts are involved, the law says they must agree on how to split the transportation, and if they cannot agree, they share the cost equally. Getting a ride is not a favor; it is in the statute.
Immediate enrollment, even without papers
Section 11432(g)(3)(C) says the chosen school shall immediately enroll the student even if the student cannot produce records normally required, such as past transcripts, immunization records, proof of residency, or other documents, and even if enrollment deadlines were missed. The new school contacts the old one for records itself.
The Supreme Court reached a related point in Plyler v. Doe (1982). It held that Texas could not deny a free public education to children because of their immigration status, since the Equal Protection Clause protects children who had no say in how they got here. McKinney-Vento rests on the same idea: a child's housing situation, or a missing document, is not a reason to keep that child out of a classroom.
The one person to find: the district liaison
Every school district must name a 'local liaison' for homeless children and youths. That title comes from section 11432(g)(1)(J)(ii), and it is the person whose job is to make the rest of this article happen: enrollment, transportation, records, and appeals. Search the district website for 'McKinney-Vento liaison' or 'homeless liaison', or ask the front office for the name.
Tell the liaison where the student is sleeping now and which school the student wants. You do not need to prove anything with paperwork first. If the school says no, ask for the decision in writing; the law requires that written explanation, and the student stays enrolled in the requested school while any dispute is decided, including appeals.
The law also requires schools to give this information in a form the family can understand, including in their native language where feasible.
Lembre-se disto
- McKinney-Vento covers students who are doubled up with relatives or friends, in motels, in shelters, or on their own, not only those in a shelter.
- The student can stay at the school of origin for the whole period of homelessness, and the district must provide transportation there.
- Enrollment is immediate, even without transcripts, immunization records, or proof of address.
- Find the district's McKinney-Vento liaison, ask in plain words, and get any refusal in writing so you can appeal.
Fontes
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