Skip To Main Content
Education for Homeless Children and Youth

Education for Homeless Children and Youth

Vermont's Education for Homeless Children and Youth (EHCY) program ensures that students experiencing homelessness have equal access to the same free, appropriate public education provided to other Vermont children, with the opportunity to meet the same challenging State academic standards. The EHCY program is authorized under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act, and seeks to identify and address the challenges that children and youth experiencing homelessness may face in enrolling, attending, and succeeding in school.

McKinney-Vento Definition of Homeless [42 U.S.C. §11434(a)(2)]
The term “homeless children and youth” means individuals who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence, and includes children and youths who:

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

  • Live in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to the 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 normally used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings

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

  • Are migratory and qualify as homeless because they are living in circumstances described in the above situations

Rights of Eligible Children and Youth

The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act guarantees educational rights and supports for students experiencing homelessness. In general, McKinney-Vento eligible students have a right to:

  • Equal access to the same free, appropriate public education, including public preschool education, as is provided to other children and youth [42 U.S.C. §11431(1)

  • Immediate enrollment, even when records normally required for enrollment are not present [42 U.S.C. §11432(g)(3)(C)]

  • Remain in the school of origin, if it is in the student’s best interest, in order to maintain educational stability [42 U.S.C. §11432 (g)(3)(A)]

  • Access all educational and related services for which they are eligible [42 U.S.C. §11432(g)(6)(A)(iii)], including Title I services and free school meals

  • Full participation in school, which may include participation in extracurricular activities [42 U.S.C. §11432(g)(1)(F)(iii)]

  • Transportation, provided by the LEA, to and from the school of origin [42 U.S.C. §11432(g)(1)(J)(iii)]

If you are experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity, please contact our building’s McKinney-Vento Coordinator (name and contact info), or our WNESU McKinney-Vento District Liaison, Shelley Wilson, at 802-460-1492 or shelley.wilson@wnesu.com.