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Tought Leader The Every Student


Succeeds Act of 2015: Meeting new transportation requirements for children and youth experiencing homelessness and in foster care centers on partnerships


WRITTEN BY BARBARA DUFFIELD


L


ack of school mobility is strongly correlated with a range of negative outcomes, including lower academic achieve- ment, higher rates of behavioral problems, lower gradu- ation rates, and even higher mortality rates. Two groups


of students who are forced to move frequently are children and youth experiencing homelessness, and those in foster care. Tese students struggle with trauma, loss and upheaval, making school participation and success more difficult – but critically important in providing the education that is necessary for better futures. Te Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) includes new provisions to stabilize the educational experiences of these students, including new requirements for local educational agency (LEA) transporta- tion. Tese provisions went into effect in 2016, one year earlier than the rest of the ESSA requirements. So what do these mean for student transporters? First, some


background.


CHILDREN AND YOUTH EXPERIENCING HOMELESSNESS


Te primary legislation addressing the educational barriers faced


by homeless children is the education subtitle of the McKin- ney-Vento Act. Te requirement for school districts to transport homeless children and youth to and from their school of origin, when staying in their school of origin is in the child’s best interest, has been in place since 2001. Since that time, the number of homeless children and youth has increased dramatically, and LEAs have learned a great deal about how to best support them. ESSA amended the McKinney-Vento Act to codify best practices and address well-documented challenges, such as the under-iden- tification of children and youth experiencing homelessness. With respect to transportation, ESSA made four significant changes:


1. ESSA requires that LEAs conduct best interest determina- tions regarding whether children should remain in their schools of origin, or attend school in the attendance zone in which they are living. Tese determinations must be indi- vidualized and child-centered, based specific factors related to each child or youth’s educational well-being.


2. ESSA amended the definition of “school of origin” to include preschools, and, where there are feeder school patterns, designated receiving schools. Like all decisions related to school placement, whether or not a child remains in his or preschool, or follows a feeder school pattern, is subject to the best interest determination.


3. ESSA clarifies that when a child or youth obtains perma- nent housing in the middle of an academic year, transpor- tation to the school of origin must be provided until the end of the year, if remaining in the school of origin is in the child’s best interest.


4. ESSA requires all LEAs that receive Title I, Part A funds to reserve funds to support homeless students, and allows these funds to be used to defray the cost of transportation to the school of origin.


CHILDREN AND YOUTH IN FOSTER CARE ESSA largely mirrors provisions addressing school stability for


foster youth first enacted in the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008, which among other things required child welfare agencies to consider proximity to school when making placements and to coordinate with LEAs to keep foster care children and youth in their schools of origin. ESSA requires state educational agencies (SEAs) to collaborate with child welfare agencies to ensure school stability and immediate enroll-


Barbara Duffield is the executive director of SchoolHouse Connection, a national advocate for children and youth experiencing homelessness, from birth through higher education. Duffield is a former director of education for the National Coalition for the Homeless and director of policy and programs at the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth. She can be contacted at barbara@schoolhouseconnection.org.


34 School Transportation News • JUNE 2017


CELEBRATING25YEARS


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