NOTE TO SCHOOLS/LEAS: Please assist student and families filling out this form.  The form should be included at the top of the registration materials that the district shares with families.  Do not simply included this form in the registration packet, because if the student qualifies as residing in temporary housing, the student is not required to submit proof of residency and other required documents that may be part of the registration packet.

The answer you give below will help the district determine what services you or your child may be able to receive under the McKinney-Vento Act. Students who are protected under the McKinney-Vento Act are entitled to immediate enrollment in school even if they don't have the documents normally needed, such as proof of residency, school records, immunization records, or birth certificate. Students who are protected under the McKinney-Vento Act may also be entitled to free transportation and other services

If ANY box other than "In Permanent Housing" is checked, then the student/family should be immediately referred to the MV Liaison.  In such cases, proof of residency and other documents normally needed for enrollment are not required and the student is to be immediately enrolled.            

After the student has been enrolled, the district/school must contact the previous district/school attended to request the student's educational records, including immunization records, and the enrolling district's LEA liaison must help the student get any other necessary documents or immunizations.

NOTE TO SCHOOLS/LEAS: If the student is NOT living in perament housing, please ensure that documentation of qualification is collected.  If the student is unaccompained, please determine if a Third Party Custodial Agreement Form is needed.

 INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMPLETING THE HOUSING QUESTIONNAIRE  Purpose of the Housing Questionnaire All Local Education Agencies (LEAs) are required to identify students experiencing homelessness.  Additionally, all LEAs that receive Title I funds must ask enrolling students about their housing status.  The Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) encourages all LEAs regardless of whether they receive Title I funds to do the same.

To collect this information, LEAs may:

1. Use the Housing Questionnaire attached here, or
2. Included a version of the attached form during on-line / virtual registration / re-registration

Every LEA Should take steps to ensure that student's housing status does not become a part of the student's permenant record, because of the sensitive nature of this information.  Housing status should be updated annually, including any documentation of McKinney-Vento eligibility.  Please see the section titled "Confidentiality" (below) for information about how and when housing information may be shared within the LEA.

Who should fill out the Housing Questionnaire?  A Housing Questionnaire should be filled out for all students enrolling in school and for all students updating enrollment records in grades preschool-12.  "Preschool" includes LEA administrated or funded preschool program, such as a pre-k or Head Start program administrated by an LEA.  The Housing Questionnaire can be completed by the student's parent, guardian or adult providing care for a student, or in the case of an unaccompanied youth, by the student directly.

Confidentiality: Student housing information should be kept confidential to the maximum extent possible.  This information should only be shared with LEA/school staff members who need information about housing status to ensure that the student's educational needs are met.  Housing information should kept confidential and should not be shared with other LEA/school personnel due to its sensitive nature and the stigma attached to being labeled homelss.  LEAs may share a student's Housing Questionnaire with LEA personnel such as:

1. the LEA liaison,
2. the registrar,
3. the student's teachers, and/or guidance counselor, and
4. the LEA staff members working with the student / student data to offer individual support

Discussing the Housing Questionnaire with Students and Families: In reviewing the Housing Questionnaire with parents, persons in parental relation, and unaccompanied youth, LEAs should emphasize that the purpose of gathering the information is to ensure that students in temporary housing arrangements are provided with the rights and services to which they are entitled under the McKinney-Vento Act.  These rights and services included: 

1. The right to stay in the same school the student had been attending before losing his/her housing or the last school attended (both known as the school origin),
2. The right to immediate enrollment for students who decide to transfer schools, even if the student does not have all of the documents normally for enrollment,
3. Transportation services if the student continues to attend the school origin, 
4. Categorical eligibility for the Title I services if offered in the LEA,
5. Categorical eligibility for free meals if offered in the LEA, and 
6. Access to services provoded with McKinney- Vento funds if available in LEA.

The LEA should also ensure that the parent, person in parental relation, unaccompanied youth is aware that the student's housing status will be kept confidential and wil only be shared with those LEA staff who are responsible for providing services to the student and those responsible for keeping track of how many students are identified as living in temporary housing in the LEA. LEAs are advised to explain to parents that if a parent claims that his/her child is living in temporary housing, and the LEA wishes to conduct an investigation to verify this information, the LEA may conduct a home visit.  However LEAs cannot contact a landlord or building superintendent to verify a student's housing status without prior parental consent.  Contacting a landlord or building superintendent without the parent's express prior written permission is a violation of FERPA, a federal law.

If the Parent, Person in Parental Relation, or Unaccompanied Youth Declines to Fill Out the Housing Questionnaire: If the parent, person in parental relation, or unaccompanied youth declines to complete the Housing Questionnaire, the LEA should note on the form that the parent, person in parental relation , or unaccompanied youth declind to provide the information requested. 

Completing the Form: If a parent, person in parental relation, or unaccompanied youth enrolling in school indicates that the student is living in one of the five temporary housing arrangements, the school may not require proof to verify where the student is living before enrolling the student.  The five temporary housing arrangements are liste below:

1. In a shelter
2. With another family or other person (sometimes referred to as "doubled-up")
3. in a hotel/motel
4. In a car, park, bus, train, or campsite, or
5. Other temporary living situation.

After the student is enrolled and attending classes, the school or LEA is permitted to verfiy the student's housing arrangements.  However, the student must first be enrolled in school.  Again, LEAs cannot contact a landlord or buillding superintendent to verify a student's housing status. (See above for more information)

Definitions of Temporary Housing Arrangements

"With another family or other person" (also referred to as "doubled-up") : LEAs should be aware that students who are sharing the housing of others are eligible for services under the McKinney-Vent Act and State law, if sharing housing is due to loss of housing, economic harship, or similar reason.

"Other temporary living situation"  :In addition to the four examples of temporary housing, students who lack a "fixed, adequate, and regular" nighttime residence are also covered as homeless under McKinney-Vent Act and State law.  This may include unaccompanied youth who have fled their homes or were forced to leave their homes and who do not otherwise meet the definition of "doubled-up."

"In permanent housing"  :Permanent housing means that the student's living arrangements are "fixed, regular, and adequate."

Enrollment is defined by law as attending classes and participating fully in school activities.  Therefore, students without housing must be allowed - without and delay - to attend classses and participate in activities, including sports.

Homeless Student rights: three school choices:

1. the school attended when permanently housed;
2. the school in which the student was last enrolled; or 
3. the school nearest to where the student is staying that other students in the neighborhood attend.  

The first two schools listed above are reffered to as the "school of orgin." The student also has the right to school choices that are available to other students in the district such as charter schools or alternative schools.  Staying enrolled in the school of orgin assumed to be in the student's best intrest unless the parent / student identifies otherwise or if continuation of the enrollment is not feasible.  Generally, changing schools could significantly imped student's academic and social progress.  Schools should keep students in the school of orgin unless this is contrary to parents, guardians, or independent student wishes.

School of Orgin ESSA Transportation Guidance:

• Transportation must be provided to and from the school of orgin (assumed to be best intrest) at the request of the parent or guardian, or, in the case of an unaccompanied youth, at the request of the local liaison.

 

• Qualification for transportation is for the full year in which a student qualifies as Mckinney-Vento eligible.

Next Steps for LEAs with Students Living in Temporary Housing Arrangements. If the parent, person in parental relation, or unaccompanied youth indicates that a student is living in temporary housing, the LEA must complete a Designation Form/ Caregiver Authorization Form https://www.doe.in.gov/student-services/formsmemos.  If the LEA belives additional information is needed before reaching a final decision on the student's eligibility under McKinney-Vento, enrollment should not be delayed and a Designation Form should still be filled out.  For more information about determining eligibility see the National Center on Homeless Education's Determining Eligibility Brief, available at: http://nche.ed.gov/downloads/briefd/det_elig.pdf