The McKinney-Vento Act, a federal law, gives students who don’t have permanent housing help in enrolling and attending school. The law states schools must ensure that all students, including homeless ones, have the same chance to receive a free and appropriate public education. Schools cannot discriminate against homeless youth nor tell other students they do not have permanent places to live. Many multilingual learners qualify for McKinney Vento when they recently move to the US. Please contact Mr. Gabriel Barrett, our LCSD's McKinney-Vento Homeless liaison, if the children and youth lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence as homeless. 

This includes children and youths who:

• share the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason (sometimes referred to as “doubled-up”);

• live in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to lack of alternative adequate accommodations;

• live in emergency or transitional shelters;

• are abandoned in hospitals;

• have 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;

• live in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing (e.g., housing that lacks any one of the fundamental utilities, does not have a working kitchen or plumbing, is overcrowded, or infested),  bus or train stations, or similar settings; and

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

• Unaccompanied youth who qualify as homeless because they are living in circumstances described above.

Students whose living situations meet this definition have educational rights and are eligible to receive services under the McKinney-Vento Act.

Under federal law, a homeless youth is any youth who is the age to attend public school and who does not have a fixed, regular, or satisfactory place to live. It does not matter whether the child is living with a parent or not. The youth does not have to be living in a shelter and could even be staying at a friend’s house or in a hotel room. Any child without a permanent place to live is considered homeless under the McKinney-Vento Act.

Every school district in South Carolina must have someone to advise homeless students about their options, assist with enrollment, and help obtain school records. Sometimes this person is called a “Homeless Liaison” or “McKinney-Vento Liaison.” Any youth without a permanent home should reach out to the liaison. The liaison can help the student with several things. 

Students without permanent places to live have the right to:

• Enroll in school without a parent or guardian.

• Enroll in school without delay.

• Enroll in school even if s/he lacks a birth certificate, school records, and immunization documents. A liaison can help obtain these records later.

• Stay in the same school even if the student now lives in a different school district. In some situations, students may also be provided transportation back to their original school. The school district(s) must work together to figure out the transportation options. Liaisons can also help families and students on this issue.

• Receive free breakfasts and lunches at school.

To help enforce all these rights, the student will need to work with our LCSD McKinney Vento liaison team. This places the school on notice that the youth does not have a permanent place to live and that the notice is required under the law.

Note: If the school says a youth is not homeless and refuses to meet any of the rights the student has, then the student’s parent or the school McKinney Vento liaison can appeal the decision to the school district office, the school board, or even court if necessary. In the meantime, youth have the right to stay in the school they were in before they ended up without a permanent place to live.