As Authorized under Title IX, Part A of ESSA: Education for Homeless Children and Youth Program, the Office of Continuous Improvement and Support is issuing a Request for Applications (RFA) from local educational agencies to develop and implement programs that facilitate the enrollment, attendance, and success in school of homeless children and youth. This competitive subgrant may be used to provide temporary, special, and supplementary services to meet the unique needs of homeless children and youths.
Goals of the McKinney-Vento Act
- Provide immediate enrollment of homeless children who are not already enrolled. This includes reviewing and revising any laws, regulations, practices, or policies that may act as barriers to the enrollment, attendance, or success of homeless children and youth.
- Provide school choice opportunities for homeless students, including transportation to the student's school of origin, if the parent/guardian or unaccompanied youth prefer to remain in the school of origin and it is determined that such placement is in the student's best interest.
- Provide opportunities for parent involvement in enrollment decisions.
- Ensure that homeless students have equal access to the same free, appropriate public education, including a public preschool education, as provided to other children and youth.
- Ensure that homeless students are provided services in such a way that they are not isolated or stigmatized.
- Promote school (or GED) success and completion for homeless students.
- Support collaboration between school districts and social service agencies serving homeless students.
Title I funds may be used to provide services to homeless children not attending a Title I school. A portion of Title I funds may be used to pay for a homeless liaison. Title I funds may be used to provide transportation for homeless youth to their school of origin.
The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act defines homeless children and youths as individuals who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence and includes:
- children and youths who are sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason; are living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to the lack of alternative adequate accommodations; are living in emergency or transitional shelters; are abandoned in hospitals;
- 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;
- children and youths who are living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, or similar settings; and
- migratory children who qualify as homeless because the children are living in circumstances described above.
None is available.
Districts may not use funds from this program to replace the regular academic program. Districts may not use funds from this program to supplant funds from nonfederal sources. Districts may not use funds to provide services in settings within a school that segregate homeless children and youth from those who are not homeless except for short periods of time due to health and safety emergencies or for providing temporary, special, and supplementary services.