With the school year once again resuming, districts nationwide are updating their operations based on revisions to the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, which will impact student transportation services and how homeless kids ride the school bus.
The Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 mandates several changes to McKinney-Vento with Title I funds for homeless student services eligible to pay for local liaisons and transportation to the school of origin, the latter now including preschools. ESSA also requires districts to continue transportation to the school of origin for the remainder of the academic year, even after a student obtains permanent housing. The changes take effect Oct. 1.
On Dec. 10, “awaiting foster care placement” per state Title I, Part A regulations will be deleted from the definition of homelessness in McKinney-Vento for all states except Arkansas, Delaware and Nevada. Those states don’t see the foster care change till Dec. 10, 2017.
But ESSA will allow children in foster care to immediately enroll in a news school when a change is necessary, which could impact transportation services. The Legal Center for Foster Care Education points outs that local education and child welfare agencies must develop plans for providing “cost-effective transportation when needed to allow students to remain in the same school.”
The National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth outlined that school districts receiving Title I funds will also need to collaborate with local child welfare agencies to ensure that foster children who need transportation services to their school of origin “promptly receive it in a cost effective manner.” Districts will have the option of covering all transportation costs, receiving reimbursement from child welfare or sharing the costs.
ESSA also requires charter schools to eliminate “any barriers to enrollment for foster youth and unaccompanied homeless youth.”
ESSA authorizes $85 million each fiscal year from 2017 through 2020, a 21-percent increase over the previously authorized level and a 31-percent increase over what Congress actually appropriated for the current fiscal year.
Read more in the September issue of School Transportation News magazine.
