Housing Insecurities Resources

All students are guaranteed the right to a free, appropriate, public education. The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act protects students whose housing situations are affecting their education. McKinney-Vento protections apply to all public school students, pre-K through grade 12 who “lack a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence”, including children and youth:

• Sharing housing due to loss of housing or economic hardship

• Living in motels, hotels, trailer parks or camping grounds due to lack of alternative adequate housing

• Living in emergency or transitional housing

• Abandoned in hospitals

• Having a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designed for, or ordinarily used as, regular sleeping accommodations

• Living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations

• Migratory students meeting the descriptions above

Students can remain enrolled in the schools they have been attending even if they are temporarily staying out of the district but also have the right to enroll in their new school of residence. To help keep students in school during times of housing instability, enrollment should be immediate, even if families cannot provide typically required documents or immunization records right away. Schools must provide transportation for students who need it to attend school.

View the full text of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (Title IX, Part A of ESSA).

View the McKinney-Vento Definition of Homelessness (legislative excerpt).