Hello members,
Thanks to all that took precious time away from their busy days to attend our McKinney-Vento Provider Training!
In this two-hour training, we covered many topics, which we will recap below, and have also included our presentation slides.
What is the McKinney-Vento Program? Who does it serve?
We were lucky enough to have program offerings and eligibility explained by Kayla Blau, who has worked in the Seattle Public Schools McKinney-Vento program office, Sammie Iverson, who worked as a homeless student liaison and myself, who was a McKinney-Vento student.
McKinney-Vento is a federal program allocated through every school district in the U.S. It is designed to act as an advocacy hub for youth experiencing homelessness attending a K-12 school, who need unique supports to remain in school and attain academic goals. Major takeaways include:
- Students are deemed homeless if they lack fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence. This includes students who are undocumented and youth you are no longer minors but still attending a K-12 school
- Youth experiencing homelessness are entitled to immediate enrollment in school
- Youth have the right to attend their school of origin, or the last school they attended when they were last stably housed
- Schools are obligated to facilitate and fund transportation to a youth’s school of choice and should consider creative options to make sure that youth’s needs are met
- Unaccompanied minors have recently gained new legal protections, such as primary health care and access to state ID cards without parent or guardian consent.
The Coalition on Homelessness was also joined by passionate youth-serving organization providers, who provide important advocacy and direct service for youth experiencing homelessness.
Team Child
Youth experiencing homelessness experience major barriers that can lead to legal challenges, such as truancy, detention, and having unmet needs at school or in their community. Team Child provides legal representation and school district coordination to ensure vulnerable youth receive the accommodations and support they needs.
Learn more at their website.
Child Care Resources
Families experiencing homelessness have the very same needs as any other family. This includes the need for affordable and accessible childcare. Child Care Resources provides case management for vulnerable families to locate ideal childcare solutions that suits a family’s needs, such as time to work and access other resources, and to ensure they access funding to make it affordable, often through the Child Care Subsidy program.
Learn more at their website.
Sound Discipline
Youth who have experienced homelessness or housing instability have experienced trauma, which can affect their social-emotional learning. This means these youth need support to develop healthy identities, manage emotions, and interact with their communities in healthy ways. Sound Discipline works with community service providers and school districts so that providers can create safe spaces and help vulnerable youth learn and thrive.
Stacy Lappin from Sound Discipline shared a self-regulation activity as an introduction into some training they provide. Unfortunately, the video quality was poor, so below is an example of an exercise you can expect from Sound.
If you want to check out more affordable trainings by Sound Discipline, Sound is currently offering a discount to friends of the Coalition – check out this flyer for more information!
Learn more at their website.
The Anti-Hunger & Nutrition Coalition
Lots of resources were delivered during the first few years of the COVID-19 pandemic, however some youth and family nutrition resources are again becoming harder to access. The Anti-Hunger & Nutrition Coalition have been lobbying the Washington legislature to ensure that school lunches remain affordable to all, especially youth experiencing homelessness. Learn more at their website.
Looking for more resources?
For a brief resource guide that includes these and our other community service providers, check out this one-pager!
Thanks to all of the community members and advocates who support out youth experiencing homelessness – make sure to look for future training opportunities on our Professional Development page.