Student Homelessness

Who is homeless?

The Federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act defines children and youth who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence as homeless. This includes children and youths who:

  • share the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason (sometimes referred to as “doubled-up”);

  • live in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to lack of alternative adequate accommodations;

  • live in emergency or transitional shelters;

  • are abandoned in hospitals;

  • have a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designed for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings;

  • live in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing (e.g., housing that lacks any one of the fundamental utilities, does not have working a kitchen or plumbing, is overcrowded, or infested),  bus or train stations, or similar settings; and

  • Migratory children who qualify as homeless because they are living in circumstances described above.

  • Unaccompanied youth who qualify as homeless because they are living in circumstances described above.

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Students whose living situations meet this definition have educational rights and are eligible to receive services under the McKinney-Vento Act.

SC Charter School District Liason for the McKinney Vento Act ​

Jennifer Almeda
3710 Landmark Drive, Suite 201
Columbia, SC 29204
phone: (803) 734-1103
fax: 803-734-8325

email: jalmeda@sccharter.org