The Education for Homeless Children and Youth (EHCY) program is authorized under the McKinney-Vento Act, which seeks to address the challenges that homeless children and youth may face in enrolling, attending, and succeeding in school. Under the act, state educational agencies (SEAs) must ensure that each homeless child and youth has equal access to the same free, appropriate public education, including public preschool education, as other children and youths. 

Homeless children and youths must have access to the educational and related services that they need to meet the same challenging state academic standards to which all students are held. In addition, homeless students may not be separated from the mainstream school environment. SEAs and local educational agencies (LEAs) must review and undertake steps to revise laws, regulations, practices, or policies that may be barriers to the identification, enrollment, attendance, or success in school of homeless children and youths.

The EHCY program is authorized under Title VII-B of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 11431 et seq.). The act was first authorized in 1987 and re-authorized in December 2015 by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). 

McKinney-Vento and Title I

•  McKinney-Vento students attending any school in the LEA are automatically eligible for Title IA services. 20 USC 6315(c)(2)(E)
•  All LEAs receiving Title IA funds must set aside the funds necessary to provide McKinney-Vento students with services comparable to those provided in Title IA schools. 20 USC 6313(c)(3)
  •  Amount must be based on the total LEA allocation before expenditures or transfers.
  •  Amount must be sufficient to provide comparable services to homeless students, regardless of other services provided with reserved funds
•  LEA set-aside amounts may be determined based on a needs assessment that reviews homeless student enrollment averages and trends over 2-3 years and multiplies by the average per-pupil cost of providing Title I services
•  The needs of McKinney-Vento students should be reviewed at least twice per school year.

Each year’s set aside should include an evaluation of the effectiveness of past activities in accomplishing the goals of Title I and McKinney-Vento for individual students and the overall programs.

Featured McKinney-Vento Resources

NewResidency Form English (PDF)

Residency Form Spanish (DOCX)

Homeless Eligibility Flowchart (PDF)

State Guidelines and Resources

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