Family Resources/School Social Workers

Homeless children and unaccompanied youth have access to the education and other services that all children and youth have to ensure that such children and youths have an opportunity to meet the same challenging academic and behavioral standards to which all students are held.

Elements of Homeless Services in the Stoughton Area School District Include:

• The designation of a homeless liaison - Stoughton Area School District's designated homeless liaison is Keli Melcher, Director of Student Services.
• Identifying and immediately enrolling any homeless child or youth (preschool to grade 12), even without academic or medical records.
• Informing parents/guardians of the educational rights of their children.
• Ensuring no barriers exist (for example, residency requirements, lack of transportation or school fees) for full educational participation.
• Developing partnerships with community agencies to identify and assist with basic services for homeless families, children, and youth.
• Ensuring homeless students are not segregated or stigmatized.

The McKinney-Vento Act defines homeless children and youths as individuals who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence. The term "homeless children and youths" includes children and youths who are:

• sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or similar reason;
• living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to lack of alternative adequate accommodations;
• living in emergency or transitional shelters
• abandoned in hospitals;
• living in a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designated for or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings;
• living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, or similar settings; and/or
• migratory children living in any of the circumstances described above

Each school social worker is responsible for determining if a student qualifies as homeless.

If you or someone you know may qualify for protection under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Act, please contact your school social worker.

The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act guarantees a child qualified as homeless the right to attend one of two schools: the school of origin or the local attendance area school.

•  Which School?
  • “The local educational agency [LEA or school district] serving each child or youth to be assisted under this subtitle shall, according to the child's or youth's best interest--
    • (i) continue the child's or youth's education in the school of origin for the duration of homelessness--
    • (I) in any case in which a family becomes homeless between academic years or during an academic year; or
    • (II) for the remainder of the academic year, if the child or youth becomes permanently housed during an academic year; or
  • enroll the child or youth in any public school that non homeless students who live in the attendance area in which the child or youth is actually living are eligible to attend.” [M-V: 722(g)(3)(a)]

Supporting Students Experiencing Homelessness (WI DPI)