If you, or someone you know is experiencing homelessness, please contact Brian Stombaugh, Homeless Educational Liaison at (309) 865-6914, extension 1710

Homeless children and youth have the right to a free, appropriate, public education. The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act of 2001 (Title X, Part C of the No Child Left Behind Act. Sec 725) guarantees that right for our homeless children and unaccompanied youth.

Homeless Children and Youth are children who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence. This includes:

• children and youths who are sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or similar reason (IE: families who are “doubled up”)

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

• are living in emergency or transitional shelters

• are abandoned in hospitals

• are awaiting foster care placement

• children and youths who 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.

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

• migratory children who qualify as homeless based on the above criteria

Often homeless children and unaccompanied youth face difficulty enrolling in school because of lost records, immunizations, and physical examinations.

Children experiencing homelessness have the right to:

• Stay in their old school or go the school near where they are staying

• Immediate enrollment, even without school or medical records

• Receive transportation to school, when needed