Education Rights of Homeless Children & Youth
Education Rights of Homeless Children and Youth
The Lower Dauphin School District encourages children and youth who are homeless to enroll in school. The district will make reasonable efforts to identify homeless children within the district, encourage their enrollment, and eliminate existing barriers to their attendance and education, in compliance with federal and state law and regulation.If you are homeless or know of a child or youth that is homeless and not attending school, please contact the district director of pupil services, at 717-566-5318.
Who is Considered Homeless?
Any child or youth not attending school who lacks a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence is considered homeless and includes those who are sharing housing with others due to loss of housing or economic hardship. Also included in the definition are children and youth who are living in hotels, camping grounds, emergency shelters, cars, bus or train stations, abandoned in hospitals, awaiting foster care placement, living as migratory children in conditions described in previous examples, living as run-away children, abandoned or forced out of homes by parents or caretakers, or similar settings.
What are the Education Rights of Homeless Children?
Our schools provide equal and comparable access to all students regardless of their home living situation. Homeless children and youth have specific rights that include:
• Immediate enrollment in school and, when desired or feasible, at the school of origin, and
• Prompt provision of necessary services such as transportation.
• Appropriate support services and programs for which they are eligible such as programs for gifted, children with disabilities, vocational education, preschool, meal programs and the federally funded Title I program.
Please click here to view Policy 251: Students Experiencing Homelessness, Foster Care, and Other Educational Instability Policy 251
Additional Information is contained in the Basic Education Circular: Education for Homeless Youth
Please watch this video that contains helpful information about supports and services.