May incoming homeless students be served separately from resident students?
Please remember that federal law prohibits segregating homeless students from the general population. Separate “shelter schools” cannot be used to provide services to homeless students except in very limited circumstances. The McKinney-Vento Act does allow some services to be provided “for short periods of time” to deal with health and safety emergencies or to provide “temporary, special, and supplementary services to meet the unique needs of homeless children.” Such arrangements may be utilized for short-term services, but students expected to remain in the district for a significant period of time should be incorporated into the general population.
