According to federal and state laws, homeless students are those who find themselves in a variety of living situations that lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence.

The purpose of the federal McKinney-Vento Act and state laws pertaining to homelessness is to break down barriers to school success.  When it is in the best interest of the student, the goal is that highly mobile homeless students attend one school for an entire school year. 

When students are mobile, our efforts center on giving them access to regular school programming, this may mean:

• Allowing a student to enroll immediately without giving an address, providing immunization, or other records (although we continue to work to get these once the student is enrolled);
• Providing free breakfast (if offered at their school) and free lunch under the federal free lunch program for the remainder of the school year, even if they move to permanent housing during the school year;  
• Providing transportation whenever feasible and if it is in the child’s best interest, allow the student to continue in their current school of origin;
• Waiving or paying fees for activities;
• Providing school supplies from the donations to SD27J;
• Providing families with information and referrals to community organizations that may be able to help students and families with non-educational needs, such as utilities assistance, health care, and food.