Public schools – Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness Blog

Resources from our “Helping Homeless Students: McKinney-Vento 101” workshop

September 4, 2014 by Alison Eisinger

We had such a great turnout at our “Helping Homeless Students: McKinney-Vento 101” workshop on August 26, 2014, and we hope you found the topic just as engaging and informative as we do. As promised, here is a list of resources our wonderful presenter, Katara Jordan from Columbia Legal Services, put together to navigate common hurdles that prevent homeless students and their families from accessing the valuable services they need to get to and stay in school.

Basic Education Rights and Opportunities in Public Schools

http://www.governor.wa.gov/oeo/publications/manual_basic_education_rights.pdf

http://www.governor.wa.gov/oeo/publications/manual_basic_education_rights_spanish.pdf

How to be an Education Advocate

http://www.governor.wa.gov/oeo/publications/manual_education_advocate.pdf

http://www.governor.wa.gov/oeo/publications/manual_education_advocate_spanish.pdf

Protecting the Educational Rights of Students with Disabilities in Public Schools

http://www.governor.wa.gov/oeo/publications/manual_students_with_disabilities.pdf

http://www.governor.wa.gov/oeo/publications/manual_students_with_disabilities_spanish.pdf

Ombudsman’s services

http://www.governor.wa.gov/oeo/publications/2a_english.pdf

Other general information including the above handouts:

http://www.governor.wa.gov/oeo/publications/default.asp

Serving Students Experiencing Homelessness under Title I

http://center.serve.org/nche/downloads/briefs/titlei.pdf

What Service Providers Should Know

http://center.serve.org/nche/downloads/briefs/service_providers.pdf

Washington HomelessYouth.org Project

http://homelessyouth.org/washington

Homeless students have rights, but many of them have no idea what they are

September 21, 2012 by admin

Is there funding for extra-curricular activities under McKinney Vento for homeless students? This question was asked during the Seattle/King County Coalition’s Annual McKinney-Vento 101 training on August 22nd. Jess Lewis from the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and Katara Jordan from Columbia Legal Services spent 2 hours introducing and explaining the complex issues in McKinney-Vento legislation to close to 100 school staff and housing and homeless service providers. The McKinney-Vento Act requires school districts to immediately register, transport and provide and pay for extra-curricular activities to homeless students. There are more than 26,000 students in Washington state that qualify for McKinney-Vento services, and school districts must pay for these services whether or not they recieve funding under the law. Most school districts do not receive this funding. Washington State has 295 school districts. Of those, 23 receive McKinney-Vento sub-grants. If a student wants to participate in extra-curricular activities, the school district is required to address the barrier to full participation. Often, school districts will look to community service providers, booster clubs, etc. to try and address the specific needs of students. If other resources cannot be found, the school district is still required to find some way to address the barrier to participation. Another common question service providers ask and school staff often find confusing is: What is the distance that schools are required to transport kids to school? Many school personnel have been told that schools will not transport kids out of their county. However, there is no specific distance or commute time mentioned in the McKinney-Vento Act when it comes to school of origin transportation. So, a student attending school in Everett Public Schools, as an example, and finds shelter with her family in Seattle can continue attending her school in Everett if it is determined by all parties that …

Becca Bill Changes

July 2, 2012 by admin

For the last two years, homeless youth had 3 days to stay in a shelter before staff was required to call and notify their parents of their whereabouts. During these three days, staff could create rapport with the young person, build trust and find out if they were fleeing a violent or abusive situation or taking a breather and that reconciliation with family was possible. After July 1, however, this 72 hour window will end. The Becca Bill was adopted by the Washington State Legislature in 1995 to protect homeless and run away youth by giving parents more control over where their children are located. The Becca Bill is connected to the truancy policy for students in Washington State. The law requires that shelter staff and other service providers contact parents of youth younger than 17 years old with their whereabouts. The enforcement of the law is controversial and two years ago, due to much advocacy, the Legislature passed a temporary provision giving service providers 72 hours to serve a minor before having to notify parents or the police. This temporary extension will expire after June 30th. Service providers will now have only 8 hours with youth before law requires them notify families or the authorities. That is, if the youth show up at all once word gets out. The Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness is communicating with agencies that this change will directly effect to coordinate advocacy efforts and to get the word out about the change to homeless youth, service providers, and the community at large. At our Youth and Young Adult Committee meeting on July 10th and at our General Membership Meeting on July 19th members of the coalition will have an opportunity to discuss advocacy and efforts under way at various agencies to mitigate the potentially …