Enrollment Rights and Services:
To the extent practical and as required by law, the district will work with students experiencing homelessness and their families to provide stability in school attendance and other services. Special attention will be given to ensuring the enrollment and attendance of students experiencing homelessness not currently attending school. Students experiencing homelessness will be provided district services for which they are eligible, including Head Start and comparable preschool programs, Title I, and similar state programs, special education, bilingual education, vocational and technical education programs, gifted and talented programs, and school nutrition programs.
Homeless students are defined as lacking a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence, including:
- Sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing or economic hardship;
- Living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to the lack of alternative adequate accommodations;
- Living in emergency or transitional shelters;
- Abandoned in hospitals;
- Awaiting foster care placement;
- Living in public or private places not designed for or ordinarily used as regular sleeping accommodation for human beings;
- Living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, transportation stations, or similar settings;
- Migratory children living in conditions described in the previous examples.
According to the child’s or youth’s best interest, homeless students will continue to be enrolled in their school of origin while they remain homeless or until the end of the academic year in which they obtain permanent housing. Parents or guardians of homeless students may request enrollment in the school in which attendance area the student is actually living, or other schools.
Homeless students are entitled to transportation to their school of origin or the school where they are to be enrolled. If the school of origin is in a different district, or a homeless student is living in another district but will attend his or her school of origin in this district, the districts will coordinate the transportation services necessary for the student, or will divide the costs equally.
The district’s liaison for homeless students and their families shall coordinate with local social service agencies that provide services to homeless children and youths and their families; other school districts on issues of transportation and records transfers; and state and local housing agencies responsible for comprehensive housing affordability strategies.
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