The Families in Transition Program (FIT) supports students and families who may be experiencing homelessness and are in need of supports and services. Our FIT staff provides families and school personnel with information
to ensure the effective implementation of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Assistance Act.
The McKinney-Vento Act
is a federal law that ensures children and youth who do not have
permanent housing are able to go to school. It gives children and
youth rights to immediately enroll in school, stay in school, get
transportation to school, and do well in school.
McKinney-Vento Act defines experiencing homelessness as individuals who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence to
include:
- Children and youth who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime
residence, and includes children and youth who are sharing the housing of
other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or similar reasons;
are living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to lack of
alternative adequate accommodations; are living in emergency or transitional
shelters; or are abandoned in hospitals;
- Children and youth who have a primary nighttime residence that is a private
or public place not designed for or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping
accommodation for human beings within the meaning of section
103(a)(2)(C);
- 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 (as such, term is defined in section 1309 of the Elementary
and Secondary Education Act of 1965) who qualify as homeless for the
purpose of this subtitle because the children are living in circumstances
described in clauses (i) through (iii).