The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (Subtitle B-Education for Homeless Children and Youth), reauthorized in January 2002, ensures educational rights and protections for children and youth experiencing homelessness.

Key Provisions:

• Local Educational Agencies (LEAs), otherwise known as school districts, must provide students experiencing homelessness with transportation to and from their school of origin, at a parent or guardian's request.

• For unaccompanied youth, LEAs must provide transportation to and from the school of origin at the LEA homeless liaison's request.

• "School of origin" is defined as the school that the child or youth attended when permanently housed or the school in which the child or youth was last enrolled.

• If the student's temporary residence and the school or origin are in the same LEA, that LEA must provide or arrange transportation. If the student is living outside the school of origin's LEA, the LEA where the student is living and the school of origin's LEA must determine how to divide the responsibility and cost of providing transportation, or they must share the responsibility and cost equally.

• In addition to providing transportation to the school of origin, LEAs must provide students in homeless situations with transportation services comparable to those provided to other students.

Who is homeless? The term "homeless children and youth" -

(A) means individuals who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence...' and

(B) includes -

(i) Children and youths who are sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing economic hardship, or a similar reason; are living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to the lack of alternative accommodations; are living in emergency or transitional shelters; are abandoned in hospitals; or are awaiting foster care placement;

(ii) 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...

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

(iv) migratory children who qualify as homeless for the purposes of this subtitle because the children are living in circumstances described in clauses (i) through (iii).

District 140 has named Mrs. Heather Kingdon, Davenport School Counselor as the district's homeless liaison. Mrs. Kingdon can be contacted by:

Office Phone (309) 467-3012

Email Mrs. Heather Kingdon

In person at Davenport Elementary, 301 S Main St, Eureka, IL 61530