The Education for Homeless Children and Youth (EHCY) program is authorized under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of December, 2015. CESA #11’s EHCY program addresses the needs of students experiencing homelessness by supporting homeless liaisons through training and technical assistance, support in program compliance for policies and procedures, and assisting districts who are monitored by DPI. 

The overarching goal of the EHCY program is to ensure educational equity for children and youth experiencing homelessness so they are able to attend and fully participate in school.

The McKinney-Vento program is designed to address the problems that homeless children and youth have faced in enrolling, attending, and succeeding in school. Under this program, every state must ensure that each homeless child and youth has equal access to the same free, appropriate public education, including a public preschool education, as other children and youth. Homeless children and youth should have access to the educational and other services that they need to enable them to meet the same challenging state student academic achievement standards to which all students are held.

In addition, homeless students may not be separated from the mainstream school environment. States and districts are required to review and undertake steps to revise laws, regulations, practices, or policies that may act as a barrier to the enrollment, attendance, or success in school of homeless children and youth.

Every Child's Right

If a child is between the ages of 4 and 20 years, that child has the right to attend school even if she/he:

• lives in a shelter or motel

• has no permanent address

• is abandoned in hospitals or awaiting foster care placement

• has a previous address in another state or lives in a campground, a car, an abandoned building, a trailer home, transitional housing or other temporary shelter, or is doubled up with someone else

• Migratory children who qualify as homeless because they are living in circumstances described above

Definition of Homelessness

The McKinney-Vento Act defines homeless children and youth as individuals who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate night-time residence. The term includes children and youth who:

• share the housing of other persons due to the loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason

• are living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping ground due to the lack of alternative adequate accommodations

• are living in emergency or transitional shelters

• are abandoned in hospitals

• are awaiting foster care placement

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

• are living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, or similar settings

• migratory children who qualify as homeless because they are living in circumstances described above