Education Access and Advocacy: A Prevention and Re-Entry Strategy
Goals: 1. To identify clients eligible for McKinney-Vento Act protections.
2. To ensure youth receive their educational rights to help divert them
from the juvenile justice system and facilitate successful re-entry.
Pop Quiz
1. Students are eligible for McKinney-Vento protections if they lack a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence; for example, if they are sharing the housing of others due to loss of housing, ______, or a ______.
2. McKinney-Vento students are entitled to ______enrollment in school, even if they lack documents typically required and even if they do not have a parent/guardian to enroll them.
3. Enrollment means attending classes and ______in school activities.
4. Based on their best interest, McKinney-Vento students can remain in the school of origin and receive transportation for the ______of homelessness and until the ______.
5. School of origin is the school the student attended when permanently house or the school in which ______.
6. LEAs must have procedures to remove barriers to the identification, enrollment and retention of McKinney-Vento students, including barriers related to fees, ______, and ______.
7. LEAs must ensure the McKinney-Vento students can receive appropriate credit for full or partial coursework ______at a prior school.
8. When a parent or youth appeals a school’s decision, the student must be ______enrolled in the school ______while the dispute is pending.
9. Every state has a McKinney-Vento State Coordinator, and every LEA has a McKinney-Vento ______.
Pop Quiz Answer Key
1. economic hardship or a similar reason
2. immediate
3. participating fully
4. duration; end of the academic year in which the student becomes permanently housed.
5. school of origin; student-centered
6. last enrolled
7. fines and absences
8. satisfactorily completed
9. immediately; in which enrollment is sought
10. liaison
For More Information
SchoolHouse Connection
Patricia Julianelle, Director of Program Advancement and Legal Affairs
Twitter: SchoolHouseConn
vimeo.com/pjulianelle
Columbia Legal Services
Brandy Sincyr, Policy Analyst
Columbialegal.org
Schoolhouse Washington
Schoolhousewa.org
Follow us on Twitter: @schoolhousewa
State Coordinator contact information and data
ABA Homeless Youth Legal Network
Lisa Pilnik,
Amy Horton-Newell,
Scenarios for discussion
1. Using McKinney-Vento to disrupt the school to prison pipeline.
A client is in juvenile court based on a charge of truancy/excessive absences. In talking to your client you learn that since she came to the US from Nicaragua eight months ago, she has been moving from place to place, staying with distant relatives and acquaintances. The student missed 15 school days this semester, usually due to not having transportation to school, oversleeping, or having to be at work.
a)Is the student McKinney-Vento eligible?
b)What section(s) of McKinney-Vento might apply to excuse the absences?
c)How can the school help prevent future absences?
d)Does the student’s immigration status affect her education rights?
2. Using McKinney-Vento to transition youth back into school after incarceration.
You are working on transitioning a client from detention back into the community. Prior to being incarcerated, she was living in a motel with her baby and attending a program for parenting teens at a local high school. She is planning to move in with her grandmother, who currently has guardianship of the baby. She wants to return to her previous school, but her grandmother lives in the attendance zone for a different high school, which does not have a parent program.
a)Is the student McKinney-Vento eligible?
b)What section(s) of McKinney-Vento can help her enroll in her previous high school?
c)Assume the grandmother lives 100 miles from the previous school. What section(s) of McKinney-Vento can help the student enroll in the high school near grandmother’s home, without proof of residency or a legal guardian?
3. Using McKinney-Vento to help keep youth engaged in school.
A client who recently transitioned back into school after a month in detention is on the verge of dropping out. He didn’t earn any credit for the work he did in the 2 months of school prior to entering the detention facility, or the work he did while detained. He also is being told he can’t run track, because he was in detention during try-outs. He’s been sleeping in his uncle’s living room, like he was before he entered detention, but his uncle is never home and provides no food or supervision. Other than getting free lunch and seeing one teacher he likes, he can’t find much reason to stay in school.
a)Is the student McKinney-Vento eligible?
b)What section(s) of McKinney-Vento can help the student get credits for past work?
c)What section(s) of McKinney-Vento can help the student participate in track?
d)Assume the student is receiving special education services due to a mental health diagnosis. He has a violent outburst in school one afternoon. Do he have any legal rights if the school seeks to expel him?
Scenario Cheat Sheet
1. Using McKinney-Vento to disrupt the school to prison pipeline.
a)Yes, the student is McKinney-Vento eligible.
b)42 USC §§11432(g)(1)(I); (g)(6)(A)(viii); (g)(1)(J)(iii).
c)Review transportation; connect to housing resources; provide an alarm clock; connect to basic needs support so she can work fewer hours.
d)No. Immigration status is irrelevant for education rights. The school cannot ask about immigration status.
2. Using McKinney-Vento to transition youth back into school after incarceration.
a)She was eligible prior to detention and probably eligible after (will grandmother’s residence be fixed, regular and adequate for the youth?). She is not eligible while incarcerated.
b)42 USC §§11432(g)(3)(A)-(B).
d)42 USC §§11432(g)(3)(C).
3. Using McKinney-Vento to help keep youth engaged in school.
a)Yes, the student is McKinney-Vento eligible.
b)42 USC §§11432(g)(1)(F)(ii); (g)(6)(A)(x)(ii).
c)42 USC §§11432(g)(1)(I); (g)(1)(F)(iii).
d)Yes, the student has rights under IDEA, including the right to a hearing to determination if the behavior was a manifestation of the student’s disability. There are procedures a school district must follow prior to removing a special education student from school for more than ten days, the student is entitled to services during a removal from school of more than 10 days.