Catawba County Schools

The McKinney-Vento Education for Homeless Children and Youth Act provides a definition of homeless children and youths to be used by state and local educational agencies (LEAs). It defines homeless children and youths to be those who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence. Under the larger umbrella of lacking a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence, the law also provides several examples of situations that meet the definition.

-sharing housing due to a loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason; -living in hotels, motels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to a lack of alternative adequate housing -living in emergency or transitional shelters; -abandoned in hospitals; -living in a public or private place not designated for, or normally 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 places; -living in one of the above circumstances and who are migratory according to the definition in Section 1309 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 [42 U.S.C. § 11434a(2)].