Hanover Township Public Schools

The Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act, which was signed into law in 1987, required states to review and revise residency requirements for the enrollment of homeless children and youth to address the challenges that they face in enrolling, attending, and succeeding in school.

Under the McKinney-Vento Act, state educational agencies (SEAs) 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 youths. Homeless children and youth must have access to the educational and related services that they need to enable them 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) are required to review and undertake steps to revise laws, regulations, practices, or policies that may act as barriers to the identification, enrollment, attendance, or success in school of homeless children and youths.

The tenets of the law provide children and youth experiencing homelessness with the following:

• Immediate enrollment even when records not present
• Right to remain in the school of origin, if in the student's best interest
• Transportation to the school of origin
• Support for academic success

The National Center for Homeless Education (NCHE) is a helpful source for additional information about homeless education and the McKinney-Vento  Homeless Assistance Act. 

A range of printable resources in both English and Spanish can be found on this page:
https://nche.ed.gov/downloads/.

See also the NJ Department of Education's Education for Homeless Children and Youth Program.

Resource from Social Work License Map: How to Address Mental Health for Students Experiencing Homelessness