Many local liaisons step into their role right as back-to-school season begins, inheriting a long list of responsibilities with little time to prepare. This guide distills the essentials from the National Center for Homeless Education’s Homeless Liaison Toolkit into a starting checklist for districts building out or strengthening their McKinney-Vento program.
What Is the McKinney-Vento Act, and Who Is the Local Liaison?
The McKinney-Vento Act is the federal law that ensures students experiencing homelessness can enroll in, attend, and succeed in school without barriers created by their living situation. It guarantees rights around enrollment, school selection, and transportation, regardless of whether a family can provide the documentation typically required to start the school year.
Every local educational agency is required to designate a local liaison to carry out these protections. The role touches nearly every department in a district, including enrollment, counseling, nutrition, and transportation, which means new liaisons often find themselves coordinating across teams they’ve never worked with before. For a comprehensive walkthrough of the responsibilities, districts can reference NCHE’s Homeless Liaison Toolkit linked above.
Getting Started: Core Responsibilities for New Liaisons
The scope of the role can feel broad at first, but most responsibilities fall into a few core categories.
- Identifying students experiencing homelessness through outreach and collaboration with school personnel and community agencies
- Determining eligibility on a case-by-case basis using the legal definition of homelessness
- Ensuring immediate enrollment, even when records or documentation are incomplete
- Coordinating school selection, including school of origin decisions
- Connecting students and families to transportation, meals, tutoring, and other supports
- Posting educational rights information in schools and the community
- Supporting families through the dispute resolution process
- Maintaining accurate data for state and federal reporting
Identifying Students Experiencing Homelessness
Identification is not the liaison’s job alone. The law expects collaboration with teachers, counselors, registrars, school nutrition staff, and community partners, since these are often the people most likely to notice when a student’s living situation has changed.
Living situations that qualify under the law include students staying temporarily with other families due to loss of housing, students living in shelters or motels, students in other places not meant for regular housing, and unaccompanied youth. Annual education for school personnel is a required part of building a reliable pipeline of identification, so staff across the district know what to look for and how to respond.
Enrollment and School Selection Essentials
McKinney-Vento guarantees the right to immediate enrollment, meaning students can attend classes and participate fully while the school works out remaining paperwork in the background.
Districts also need to understand the distinction between school of origin and school of residence. The school of origin is the school a student attended when permanently housed or was last enrolled, while the school of residence is tied to the family’s current attendance area. When housing changes, the district must make a best interest determination in consultation with the family, weighing the student’s preference, academic continuity, and distance. Families have the right to dispute a school selection decision, and the student must remain enrolled in the requested school while that dispute is resolved.
Transportation: A Critical Back-to-School Priority
Transportation is often the first barrier a new liaison encounters. Students have a right to transportation to their school of origin even as housing situations change throughout the year, which means the district’s obligation doesn’t end when a family moves.
This transportation must be arranged promptly, sometimes before homelessness is fully verified, and that urgency can strain a district’s existing routing and driver capacity, especially when trips cross district lines. Getting transportation right early in the year sets the tone for a student’s stability and attendance for months to come.
Building a Back-to-School Action Plan
A short checklist can help liaisons move from a standing start to a functioning program before the first day of school.
- Review or establish a Memorandum of Understanding between the homeless education department and the transportation department
- Confirm which students are eligible for school of origin transportation before the first day of school
- Post educational rights information in schools, shelters, and other community locations
- Schedule annual education for school personnel and transportation staff
- Set up or confirm the data system used to track and report McKinney-Vento students
- Identify community partners and agencies to support ongoing identification efforts
How EverDriven Supports McKinney-Vento Liaisons
EverDriven’s Alternative Student Transportation service was built for exactly this kind of shifting, individualized need. Routes can adjust as housing situations change, students can be transported to their school of origin regardless of distance, and reliable service helps reduce missed class time during an already disruptive period.
RideAware, EverDriven’s caregiver app, gives families and guardians visibility into pickup and drop-off in real time, which builds trust for families who are already navigating instability in other parts of their lives. Alternative transportation services are designed to supplement a district’s existing transportation program rather than replace it, easing the coordination burden on liaisons who are already working across departments.
If your district is preparing for the school year ahead, EverDriven’s team can help transportation directors and liaisons build a plan that keeps students moving. Connect with us to get started.
FAQs
What’s the difference between a McKinney-Vento student and a student with an IEP?
A McKinney-Vento student qualifies based on housing instability, while a student with an IEP qualifies based on a documented disability that affects learning. A student can fall into both categories at once, and each status comes with its own separate legal protections.
Does a liaison need to verify a family’s housing situation before providing services?
No. Services, including enrollment and transportation, must begin immediately based on a family’s or student’s statement of their living situation. Verification and documentation can follow afterward and should never delay access to school.
Do students need proof of address or prior school records to enroll?
No. McKinney-Vento students have the right to enroll immediately, even without the records typically required for enrollment, such as proof of residency, immunization records, or previous school files. The enrolling school is responsible for helping the family obtain these documents afterward.
What counts as a “school of origin” if a family has moved multiple times?
The school of origin is generally the school the student attended when permanently housed or the school in which the student was last enrolled, even if the family has moved several times since. Districts should work with the family to confirm which school best fits this definition when the history is unclear.
Are unaccompanied youth handled differently under McKinney-Vento?
Unaccompanied youth, meaning students not in the physical custody of a parent or guardian, are covered under the same McKinney-Vento protections. Liaisons play an especially important role for these students since there may be no parent available to advocate on their behalf.
How often should school staff receive McKinney-Vento education?
Annual education is recommended at minimum, ideally at the start of the school year when identification needs are highest. Some districts also offer refreshers for staff in high-contact roles, such as registrars, counselors, and transportation coordinators.
What happens to a student’s transportation if their housing situation changes mid-year again?
The district must reassess and adjust transportation to maintain the student’s right to attend their school of origin, regardless of how many times the housing situation changes during the year. This is one of the areas where flexible routing capacity matters most.
Does McKinney-Vento apply to extracurricular activities, not just classroom attendance?
Yes. The law requires that McKinney-Vento students have access to the same extracurricular activities as their peers, including transportation support where needed to participate fully.
What should a liaison do if district staff push back on providing services?
Liaisons can point to the legal requirements outlined in the McKinney-Vento Act and lean on NCHE resources for guidance on staff education and internal advocacy. Framing these services around student stability and attendance outcomes often helps build support across departments.
Stephanie Sanders is a seasoned sales leader with more than 15 years of experience building teams, opening markets, and driving growth across SaaS and technology companies. As Regional Sales Director for the East Coast at EverDriven, she brings that track record to a mission that matters, ensuring every student has safe, reliable access to school.
Stephanie built her foundation in sales development and business development, mastering the prospecting and pipeline discipline that would anchor her leadership style for years to come. She went on to hold sales management and director roles across a range of high-growth technology companies, spanning video technology, talent management, supply chain risk, workplace software, home health, and contract management, developing broad expertise across vertical SaaS markets and both the Boston and New York corridors. Most recently, she led the full commercial operation across North America for a contract management platform, overseeing new business development, retention, and growth for three years.
Across every chapter of her career, Stephanie has demonstrated an ability to build from the ground up, scale what’s working, and lead teams through the complexity that comes with growth. She brings that same energy and discipline to EverDriven, partnering with school districts on the East Coast to deliver transportation solutions that put students first.
