Answer: The McKinney-Vento Act does not address that issue. It would depend on your state law. Most if not all McKinney-Vento students would be eligible for Medicaid (under 19 and very low-income). An unaccompanied youth should be able to apply on his or her own, but it may require a phone call or two to find the right person who can understand the situation and assist with the application process. For costs that aren’t covered by insurance, hospitals and doctors have their own procedures for how they handle billing, and it would be the same for your students. Of course, those debts can follow the students and parents for years, so it’s really important to get them on insurance as soon as possible.
If an unaccompanied minor (McKinney-Vento student) gets injured at school, who pays for it? We require all our athletes to have insurance, but a student could slip through the cracks. One principal uses money they receive from their soda machine to buy insurance for disadvantaged students.
Aug 29, 2017 | Q and A