McKinney Vento

The McKinney-Vento Program is designed to address the problems that homeless children and youth face in enrolling, attending, and succeeding in school. Under this program, the SCDE must ensure that each homeless child and youth has equal access to the same free, appropriate public education, including a public preschool education, as other children and youth. 

Homeless children and youth must have access to the educational and other services that they need to enable them to meet the same challenging State student academic achievement standards to which all students are held. In addition, homeless students may not be separated from the mainstream school environment based solely on the fact that they are experiencing homelessness. 

Every school district is required to have a trained, local homeless education liaison to identify and assist families with enrolling and fully participating in school. You may access the list of South Carolina District McKinney-Vento Liaisons at the following link. 

The Federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act defines children and youth who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence as homeless. This includes children and youths who: 

• share the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason (sometimes referred to as “doubled up”); 

• live in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to lack of alternative adequate accommodations; 

• live in emergency or transitional shelters; 

• are abandoned in hospitals; 

• 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; 

• live in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing (e.g., housing that lacks any one of the fundamental utilities, does not have working a kitchen or plumbing, is overcrowded, or infested), bus or train stations, or similar settings; and 

• Migratory children who qualify as homeless because they are living in the circumstances described above. 

• Unaccompanied youth who qualify as homeless because they are living in the circumstances described above. 

Students whose living situations meet this definition have educational rights and are eligible to receive services under the McKinney-Vento Act. 

McKinney-Vento rights are federal protections ensuring children and youth experiencing homelessness—including those doubled-up, in shelters, or in motels—have immediate access to a free, public education

. These rights include immediate school enrollment without typical documents, transportation to the school of origin, and access to educational services comparable to housed peers. 

Key components of these rights include:

• Immediate Enrollment: Students can enroll immediately even if they lack required documents like birth certificates, proof of residency, or immunization records.
• School Stability: Students have the right to remain in their "school of origin" (the school they attended when stably housed) to minimize disruption, or enroll in a school serving the area where they are currently staying.
• Transportation: Schools must provide transportation to and from the school of origin.
• Services and Support: Eligible students receive free meals, tutoring, and other services comparable to those offered to non-homeless students.
• Unaccompanied Youth: Rights extend to youth not in the physical custody of a parent or guardian.
• Dispute Resolution: If a dispute arises over eligibility or school placement, students have the right to attend school immediately while the dispute is being resolved. 

These rights apply to children and youth who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence. 

McKinney-Vento Identification Form

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Owwwztok2pQ