McKinney-Vento Act

The McKinney-Vento Act defines homeless individuals as those who lack a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence. This includes:

children and youths who are sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship or 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; or are abandoned in hospitals;

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;

children and youths 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 for the purposes of this subtitle because the children are living in circumstances described in clauses (i) through (iii).

Those who qualify have rights to:

access to education and educational support;

enroll in school immediately, even if they do not have documents that are usually required for enrollment;

attend classes and participate in all school activities, even if they do not have school supplies or uniforms; and

continue in their school when the family moves to a new location, if this is in their best interest, and to receive transportation to their school. [42 U.S.C. §§ 11431-11435]

If you have any questions, please contact Mr. Michael Porter, Homeless Liaison Coordinator for Lake Norman Charter, at mporter@lncharter.org or 704-948-8600. You may also contact the State Coordinator, Lisa Phillips, at 337-315-7491.

For information about the NC Homeless Education Program, visit the NCHEP website at https://hepnc.uncg.edu/. For information about homelessness, visit the NCHE NC state page at http://profiles.nche.seiservices.com/StateProfile.aspx?StateID=33. For student data, visit https://hepnc.uncg.edu/about.