The Rights of Displaced Students
The fires have left hundreds of children in Sonoma County without homes. Schools are working diligently to assess which students within their communities are now displaced, but it will take time to know exactly how many students in our community have experienced a loss of housing as the result of the fires. In the meantime, local schools are working hard to ensure educational stability for these students.
The Federal McKinney-Vento Act is intended to provide protections for students experiencing homelessness. Lack of stable housing impacts youth in many ways, including academic continuity and progress. School is a safe community for youth, where they connect to peers and trusted adults. The goal of this legislation is to ensure school stability for students and remove barriers that could cause them to miss out on educational time.
McKinney Vento applies to youth who are living in any of the following situations:• sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason (sometimes referred to as doubled-up);
Students identified as homeless are entitled to education-related support, including:
For further information, contact your local school, or the Sonoma County Office of Education (Homeless Youth Education Services Coordinator, Debra Sanders - 707-524-2661, dsanders@scoe.org). More information is also available at scoe.org/pub/htdocs/homeless-education.html. Information in Spanish is available at scoe.org/pub/htdocs//families-support-spanish.html.
