Mission

Lancaster ISD provides advocacy and support services to students and families in transition. The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act ensures the educational rights and protections for children and youth experiencing homelessness. 

 Homelessness is defined as having a lack of fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence and includes:

• Children or youth living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to the lack of alternative accommodations; are living in emergency or transitional shelters; are abandoned in hospitals, or are awaiting foster care placement;
• Children and youth who are sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or similar reasons;
• Children or youth who have a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designed for or ordinarily used as regular sleeping accommodation for human beings;
• Children or youth living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, or similar settings. 

Program Goals

The Director works in partnership with a network of service providers, shelters, food pantries, clinics, and other community agencies and connects homeless families to these resources. The LISD McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act Program supports students and families by educating school staff, performing community outreach, and removing barriers to school attendance and academic progress. In order to assure that students in homeless situations have the opportunity to enroll in, attend, and succeed in school; the following services may be explored:

*Enrollment Assistance

*Free School Meals

*School Uniforms

*School Supplies

*Transportation Services

*School of Origin