McKinney-Vento Act

The Stewart B. McKinney-Vento Education of Homeless Children and Youth (McKinney-Vento EHCY) program provides students experiencing homelessness with protections and services to ensure they enroll in and attend school; complete their high school education and be positioned for success after graduation, so they may avoid poverty and homelessness as adults. 

Eligibility Definition

Homeless children and youths are individuals who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence, including:

• Children and youths who are sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason; are living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to the lack of alternative adequate accommodations; are living in emergency or transitional shelters; or are abandoned in hospitals;
• Children and youths who have a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designed for or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings;
• Children and youths who are living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, or similar settings; and
• Migratory children who qualify as homeless because the children are living in circumstances described above.

McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, Title VII, Subtitle B, Section 725(2)

NJDOE Resources 

NJ Housing Resource Center