Homelessness

McKinney-Vento Homeless Student Resources

The Brandywine Heights Area School District believes that that homeless youth should have access to free and appropriate public education and wishes to limit the barriers that homeless students may face. Our goal is to have the educational process continue as uninterrupted as possible while children are in homeless situations.

Homeless students are defined as individuals lacking a fixed, regular, and nighttime residence, which include students living in the following conditions:

Sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing or economic hardship.
Living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to lack of adequate alternative accommodations.
Living in an emergency, transitional, or domestic violence shelters.
Abandoned in hospitals.
Living in public or private places not designed for or ordinarily used a regular sleeping accommodations for human beings.
Living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, transportation stations, or similar settings.
Living as migratory children in conditions described in previous examples.
Living as runaway children.
Being abandoned or forced out of homes by parents/guardians or caretakers.
Living as school age unwed mothers in houses for unwed mothers if they have no other living accommodations.

Unaccompanied Youth:
Unaccompanied youth include any child who is "not in the physical custody of a parent or guardian.” This includes youth who have run away from home, been thrown out of their home, been abandoned by parents or guardians, or separated from their parents for any other reason.