McKinney-Vento Homeless Children and Youth Program
Ohio Valley Educational Service Center
The McKinney Vento Act defines homelessness as “individuals who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence”. This could entail the following conditions:
- “Doubled up” or sharing housing with another person or family due to economic hardship, loss of housing or another reason
- Living in motels, hotels, trailer parks or camping grounds due to the lack of alternative adequate housing
- Living in emergency or transitional shelter
- Abandoned in Hospitals
- Living in a car, park, public space, abandoned building, substandard housing, bus or train station or a similar setting
- Migrant Children as defined by the Elementary and Secondary Act, as mentioned specifically in the definition of homeless, as migrant families often live in conditions of poverty and may not be able to afford fixed, regular, and adequate housing. Migrant children and youth, however, are not categorically McKinney-Vento eligible; rather they are eligible to the extent that their living arrangement is one described in the Act’s definition of homeless:
McKinney-Vento Definition – National Center for Homeless Education
What is the Family and Community Partnership Liaison Project?
The aim of the Family and Community Partnership Liaison project is to build the capacity of Educational Service Center (ESC) personnel and other local education officials to identify, engage, support and ultimately meet the needs of Ohio’s most vulnerable students and their families. There are seven vulnerable population groups that will be addressed through this work:
- Students with disabilities
- English learners
- Migrant families
- Justice involved youth
- Military families
- Students experiencing homelessness
- Students in foster care
A Family and Community Partnership Liaison working through local Educational Services Centers is managing a regional process designed to identify gaps in services and ultimately link students and families to appropriate state and local community resources
Links to
The Parent Institute Newsletter
Ohio Statewide Family Engagement Center
Contact information for Liaisons
Jennifer (Jenny) Maze
jennifer.maze@ovesc.org
304-588-1402
Tonya Buchanan
tonya.buchanan@ovesc.org
740-439-6669