Answer: Enrollment staff certainly can identify and verify McKinney-Vento eligibility, as long as the liaison has the opportunity to provide them with adequate training to do so. The law is pretty clear about this, requiring liaisons to ensure that “homeless children and youths are identified by school personnel” (42 USC 11432(g)(6)(A)(i)). It’s a common practice for enrollment staff to do identification, especially in larger school districts where it would be practically impossible for a liaison to be doing all of the identification and verification alone. This is part of the reason ESSA’s McKinney-Vento amendments included a requirement that liaisons ensure “school personnel providing services under this subtitle receive professional development and other support.” 42 USC 11432(g)(6)(A)(ix)). When they have doubts or questions, enrollment staff should refer those immediately to the liaison. The liaison has the final word on eligibility.
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