Answer: In general, these end-of-year efforts should strive to ensure the integrity of McKinney-Vento eligibility between academic years, but also take into consideration the known mobility and communication difficulties faced by parents and students experiencing homelessness. To that end, we’d suggest that the information:
- Request parents to inform you if they have permanent housing at the start of the school year, rather than asking if they are still in transition. Approaching continued eligibility that way errs on the side of including children and youth as eligible at the beginning of the year, and acknowledges the lapses in communication that are inherent with homeless families.
- Be sent to parents via text, or communicated in a way other than a traditional letter “home”, that it is more likely to reach them. We realize that calling all parents is not always feasible, but it may be the best way to get the information to them.