The McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Assistance Act is a federal law that ensures that homeless children and youth will secure immediate enrollment in school, facilitating the stability of their education. The term “homeless children and youth” refers to individuals who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or similar reason.

Homeless Children and Youths means children and youth who are otherwise legally entitled to or eligible for a free public education, and who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence, due to economic hardship, including 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, campgrounds, or trailer parks due to lack of alternative adequate accommodations

• are living in emergency or transitional shelters

• are abandoned in hospitals

• are awaiting foster care placement

• have a primary nighttime residence that is a private or public place not designed for or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings

• are living in a car, park, public space, abandoned building, substandard housing, bus or train station, or similar setting

• are migratory children and unaccompanied youth who are living in a situation described above

• are unaccompanied, which includes young people who have run away from home, been thrown out of their homes, and/or been abandoned by parents or guardians.

Please reach out to Michelle Stride 215-245-6055 or mstride@schoollane.org for support for students in homeless situations.

Additional resources:

https://nche.ed.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/ehcy_profile.pdf

https://www.pa.gov/en/agencies/education/resources/policies-acts-and-laws/basic-education-circulars-becs/us-code/education-for-homeless-youth.html

https://ecyeh.center-school.org/resources/basic-education-circulars/