What qualifies a student as homeless? To answer this question and as a result provide more students with access to equal opportunity in education, the Wyoming Department of Education has suggested language changes in district policies.

“Under the Wyoming Department of Education website, they had posted what they call a recommendation for policy and said these are really important things to include in your policy,” said Alison Pindell, homeless liaison, at Tuesday’s school board meeting. 

The suggestions on the website do need to be included in the district’s policy, Superintendent Jay Curtis said. If these changes are not made the lack of the suggested policy items would show up in next year’s audit of Park County School District 1.

“So it's not optional. If they say this is what we need to have, we are not subject to our own interpretation of that,” Curtis said.

He added that it is easier to use the language suggested by the Wyoming Department of Education who works directly with the federal government.

Changing the term for students from homeless to in transition may help students who wouldn’t see themselves as homeless in the traditional sense, Trace Paul, the school board vice chairman said.

“A lot of students if they were in those scenarios wouldn't classify themselves as homeless, right? They wouldn't consider … if they were staying with a relative or whatever the case might be,” Paul said.

Included in the changes is a procedure that will address disputes regarding McKinney-Vento; to date the district has not had any such disputes, Pindell said. 

What is under McKinney-Vento?

“​​The federal law is essentially saying, ‘let's make sure that children who don't have the same benefits of permanent housing, they're in transition to finding permanent housing, have access to education in whatever way we can support them,’” Pindell said.

This equal access can include arranged transportation, breakfast and lunch and equipment needed for electives. 

For high school students McKinney-Vento can also help qualify them for a higher level of financial aid as they begin applying to colleges. 

“We as a district are obligated to provide them with a letter stating their McKinney-Vento status, and then they use that with their financial aid officers to help them access higher education,” Pindell said. “And it's amazing, but if our youth don't know about it, or our counselors don't know about it, that becomes a challenge.”

Qualified youth or children can include unaccompanied youth (altered from runaways), families living with a second family out of need (doubled-up children and youth), children and youth in a transitional or emergency shelter (with stipulations), sick or abandoned children and youth who have been abandoned, children and youth living in trailer parks and campgrounds who are staying temporarily because they lack “adequate living accommodations.”

Pindell said this includes preschool students, and it is the school’s responsibility to make sure that the federally funded programs in preschools know about McKinney-Vento. The school district could be held responsible for students' transportation, she said. 

“That's part of the law that they're really pushing this year, that we're aware that we are obligated to support our preschool families and children,” Pindell said. 

How do people qualify or learn more?

Students who would potentially qualify for benefits through McKinney-Vento are found in a variety of ways, including referrals from teachers and counselors, information from entry forms and through public outreach.

“We have to post it in the community, so in every school, there's McKinney-Vento posters, but I post at Downhome Discount, Mr. D’s [and] Murdoch's. “We put posters around, we're supposed to make sure that that's visible to the public,” Pindell said.

However, she added that if you don’t know what to look for you might miss the postings, “we are trying to increase some of our community outreach.”

Students can qualify for McKinney-Vento but families do not have to take the aid, and it’s sometimes refused by the family. 

Board members Dusty Paul and Tracy Morris both had situations years ago where students had temporarily stayed with them but were unaware that they would have potentially qualified for McKinney-Vento. 

“I want to thank you, for noticing and keeping up [with policy] and doing this,” Morris said. 

For more information visit pcsd.org. The suggested policy can be found under the Sept. 26 meeting.