What Is the McKinney-Vento Act?
The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act is the primary piece of federal legislation dealing with the education of children and youth experiencing homelessness. It was authorized as Title X, Part C, of the No Child Left Behind Act, which went into effect in January 2002.
The McKinney-Vento Program is designed to address the problems that homeless children and youth face in enrolling, attending, and succeeding in school. Under this program, the SCDE must ensure that each homeless child and youth has equal access to the same free, appropriate public education, including a public preschool education, as other children and youth.
Homeless children and youth must have access to the educational and other services that they need to enable them to meet the same challenging State student academic achievement standards to which all students are held. In addition, homeless students may not be separated from the mainstream school environment based solely on the fact that they are experiencing homelessness.
If you need assistance, please reach out to our School Social Worker, Heidi Van Esselstyn at heidi.vanesselstyn@riverviewcharterschool.org.