Answer: The school is within its rights to put interventions in place to improve attendance and tardiness. You are right that the school cannot punish tardiness due to homelessness. But, if the school takes steps like providing an alarm clock, putting something enticing in place first thing in the morning to encourage on-time arrival (an activity, breakfast, etc.), making sure appropriate transportation is available, etc., and the student just never shows up on time, the school can try interventions it would use with housed students. Of course, ideally those interventions would be positive and not punitive, since punitive interventions have been shown to be ineffective in most cases.
A school is pursuing “consequences” for a student who is tardy almost daily. The parent is refusing to speak with the attendance/truancy team, and they are all at odds with each other. How does McKinney-Vento apply?
Jan 12, 2018 | Q and A