Gateway Community Charters

McKinney-Vento

The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (McKinney-Vento Act) is federal legislation that ensures the educational rights and protections of children and youth experiencing homelessness. It requires all local educational agencies (LEAs) to ensure that homeless students have access to the same free, appropriate public education as provided to other children and youth.

Definition of Children Experiencing Homelessness

According to the McKinney-Vento Act, the term "homeless children and youths" means individuals who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence and includes children and youths who are:

- sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or 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 (includes transitional housing programs)
- abandoned in hospitals
- staying in a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designed for/ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation
- living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, or similar settings
- runaways or unaccompanied (not in the physical custody of the parent or guardian)
- migratory who qualify as homeless because of living in the circumstances described above

Educational Rights

Children experiencing homelessness have a right to:

- Consistently attend school no matter where they stay at night (shelter, motel, car, temporarily with family/friends)
- Participate fully in all school activities and programs for which they are eligible
- Continue to attend the same school upon moving away from the school’s attendance area or school district
- Receive transportation from where they are currently staying back to the school of origin
- Enroll in local school where they are staying without a permanent residence or proof of residency
- Immediately attend school while the school obtains records (immunization record, cumulative records, special education documents)
- Automatically receive free/reduced price lunches and other services of the food program without an application

Should a student need assistance with any of the above mentioned items, please contact the GCC McKinney-Vento liaisons.

McKinney-Vento Liasions

Name	Title	Phone	Fax
Dr. Erik Crawford	Director of Special Education & Student Services	(916) 286-5105	(916) 993-4110

You Can Enroll in School (English)

You Can Enroll in School (Spanish)

Project Teach

Project TEACH is a Sacramento County Office of Education (SCOE) program, funded by a California Department of Education (CDE) grant, through the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Assistance Improvements Act of 2001. Project TEACH promotes the educational success of children experiencing homelessness.

The program:

- informs parents and the community of the educational rights of children under the definition of homeless
- collaborates with school districts, shelters, and agencies
- provides services for families staying in and/or attending school in Sacramento County
- coordinates opportunities for community involvement
- provides professional development and referral to resources

Is your child missing school because

- …you move a lot?
- …you live in a shelter or motel?
- …you are on the street or homeless?
- …you don't have a permanent address?

Free help to keep your child in school, plus assistance with transportation, school supplies, and more is available through Project TEACH at the Sacramento County Office of Education (SCOE)