Homeless/Foster Care Services

  • Homeless

     

    The Homeless program is designed to address the problems that homeless children and youth have faced in enrolling, attending, and succeeding in school. Under this program, State educational agencies (SEAs) 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 are guaranteed the following:

    • The right to immediate enrollment in school, even if lacking paperwork normally required for enrollment.
    • The right to attend school in his/her school of origin (if this is requested by the parent and is feasible) or in the school in the attendance area where the family or youth is currently residing.
    • Automatic elligibility for any nutrition services available at the school.
    • The right to receive transportation to his/her school of origin, if this is requested by the parent and is feasible.
    • The right to services comparable to those received by housed schoolmates, including transportation and supplemental educational services.
    • The right to attend school along with children not experiencing homelessness. Segregation based on a student's status as homeless is strictly prohibited.
    • The posting of homeless students' rights in all schools and other places around the community.

     

    The Federal McKinney-Vento Act defines "homeless children and youth" as individuals who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence. The term includes –

    • Children and youth who are:

    - sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason (often referred to as doubled-up)

    - living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to lack of alternative adequate accommodations;

    - living in emergency or transitional shelters;

    - abandoned in hospitals; or

    - awaiting foster care placement;

    • Children and youth 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;

    • Children and youth who are living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, or similar settings; and

         • Migratory children who qualify as homeless because they are living in circumstances described above.

     

    Foster Care

     

    The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 requires state child welfare agencies to collaborate with their state and local education agencies to promoste school stability and improve educational outcomes for children in foster care.  The Texas Education Code requires the following:

     

    Immediate school enrollment without records

    Attendance in the school the student was enrolled immediately before entering conservatorship, even when placed outside of the district attendance zone, until the student successfully completes the highest grade level offered by the school

    Excused absences for court-ordered appointments

    Free eligibility for PRE-K

    Accelerated instruction (at-risk indicators and compensatory education)

     

    For further information about the Homeless or Foster Care Program, please contact the Homeless and Foster Care liaison:

     

    Dale Latham

    201 E. Brazos St

    Millsap, TX  76066

    940-682-4994 

    dlatham@millsapisd.net