Homeless Education

  According to federal and state laws, homeless students are those who find themselves in a variety of living situations, such as:

• Sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason;
• Living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to the lack of alternative adequate accommodations;
• Living in emergency or transitional shelters;
• Having 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;
• Living in a car, park, public space, abandoned building, substandard housing, bus or train station, or similar setting;
• Lacking a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence; or    
• Awaiting foster care placement.

All Homeless students are automatically eligible for free breakfast and lunch under the federal free lunch program for the remainder of the school year, even if they move to permanent housing during the school year.  Brighton High School, which runs a private food-service cafeteria, provides this same service to our Homeless and other qualified students.

The purpose of the federal McKinney-Vento act and state laws pertaining to Homelessness is to break down barriers to school attendance.  The goal is that highly mobile Homeless students attend one school for an entire school year.  It is important to note that Homeless students cannot be segregated in to special programs or schools which non-Homeless students do not attend.  They must be allowed access to the regular school program.  Also of note is that simply because a student in Homeless, (s)he is not necessary mobile.  Often students live in substandard housing for years, for example. 

For students who are mobile, most of our work centers on giving Homeless students access to regular school programming.  This may mean:

• Allowing a student to enroll immediately without giving an address, providing  immunization, or other records (though we do continue to work to get these once the student is enrolled);
• Providing transportation whenever feasible to allow a student to continue in their school of origin;
• Waiving or paying fees for activities;
• Providing school supplies from the donations the District receives annually;
• Providing access to special programs;
• Making referrals to other community organizations that may be able to help students and families with non-educational needs such as utilities assistance, health care, and food.

The reality is that in many cases there is nothing families experiencing homelessness don’t need. Our goal is to provide students with what they need to be successful in school, and facilitate their access to resources outside of school.

Main Contact:

                                                    Terry Lynn,  tlynn@sd27j.org, 303-655-2900

Related links: 

www.serve.org/nche

www.naechcy.org

CDE Homeless - Education for Homeless Children Welcome

National Center for Homeless Education toll-free Helpline number

1800-308-2145