Dayana said stability helped her learn English. “Because my English has improved here. The teachers have helped me a lot here. ”
About 1.4 million American pre-12 students experienced roaming during the 2022 to 23 school year, according to the latest federal data. The education law defines roaming as lacking in “fixed, regular and adequate night residence” – which includes families who live with others.
McKinney-Vento provides additional assistance, through legal protections and a program of federal subsidies, to ensure that these students get an education.
But while the Trump administration strives to close the American education department, which oversees McKinney-Vento, the defenders fear that the protections of the law can also be eliminated.
“And if they no longer exist, it means that we will come back 30 years ago when children languished in shelters, they languished on sofas and cars, because they were not really at school,” said Barbara Duffield, executive director of Schoolhouse Connection, a nationalless national who defends young people without shelter.
The Trump administration did not say what she planned to do with McKinney-Vento if it managed to close the Department of Education, and the ministry did not answer questions from the NPR about its laws for the law of law and federal subsidies.
This week, a group of Democrats from the Chamber and some Republicans published a letter urging their colleagues to support the law and increase federal investments.
Trump “Meager” budget proposal The publication earlier this month would consolidate 18 federal education programs in a block grant, but it does not name these programs. And the White House did not respond to the request for a clarity NPR to find out if McKinney-Vento was one.
If this is the case, Duffield said: “It would actually repeal the program in its entirety, by removing protections and dedicated funding (for homeless students).”
An oasis island for families that experience roaming
Last year, the Congress reserved $ 129 million for McKinney-Vento subsidies to help schools cover support costs for students who experience roaming.
The Dayana school district, Middletown Public Schools, received $ 65,000 in McKinney-Vento funds.
Megan MAINZER is the MCKINNEY-VENDO link from the district, responsible for identifying students who experience roaming and to ensure that they receive the resources to which they are authorized under the law.
She said that the McKinney-Venteo money from the district helps pay transport, scholarships for care after school, hot spots, gas and grocery stores for families.
He also helped Mainzer to launch and provide a food pantry – in partnership with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Local Community Center – at the Middletown High School, where Dayana takes care.
This is called the island’s oasis.
The bright blue room next to the high school cafeteria has a freezer full of frozen meat and seafood, a fridge with milk and eggs, pantry staples such as rice and beans, and many snacks.
“I felt like I could not control housing problems, but I can control the possibility of helping families compensate for their costs by helping them cover their food bills so that they can put more money on the accommodation,” said Mainzer.
It is a resource on which John and his 11 -year -old son count. John asked NPR not to use his full name due to the stigma associated with homelessness.
He said that he and his son lived in motels in Middletown and Newport since the pipes broke out in their house, which makes him uninhabitable. He did not find an affordable place to rent, and the pantry and the grocery cards he received from Mainzer “made a huge difference,” he said.
“Because hotels are not cheap, so a lot of money goes there,” said John. “And I have a pride, so I feel like I was not reaching out, but (Mainzer) reaches me.”
“All of this stands at night,” said an administrator
Mainzer is deeply concerned about the fact that the law and federal funding that support students like Dayana and families like John are in danger. Losing McKinney-Vento “would affect our ability to help families,” she said.
She is not the only one to worry. McKinney-Vento bonds and defenders across the country are also concerned that if the Department of Education is eliminated, the law itself could be canceled. Even if the law remains, they fear federal funding because it could be cut.
“It’s terrifying,” said Susie Terry, coordinator of the education of the homeless for the education office of the County of San Diego. The school districts of his county identified more than 23,000 students experiencing homelessness.
“All of this stands at night. I think that the dismantling of the department (of education) and the dismantling of the program – the financing of the program – is probably my biggest concern at the moment, “she said.
Terry said the districts that receive a federal subsidy use it to pay things like transportation and to compensate for the salaries of MCKINNEY-VENTO links.
“And it is not enough (money) in the long term,” she said, but the money that schools receive is crucial.
Jennifer Cress-Slife, the McKinney-Vento connection for the CEDAR Rapids Community School District in Iowa, said the law had made a big difference for its students.
“Students we see receiving homeless people are already our most vulnerable,” she said. His district has identified around 430 students who are experiencing homeless this school year.
She said that the rights they have the right to signify that they have easier access to education.
“And losing all this will make a huge difference,” says Cress-Slife. She fears that all school districts will continue to provide these protections in the absence of a federal mandate.
Without the law and federal funding for this, “there would be higher rates of students,” said Sabra Emde, the McKinney-Vento affair for schools in the city of Ardmore in southern Oklahoma. His district identified 166 students who suffer from roaming this year.
“There would be higher rates of students who did not attend school,” said Emde.
Some scenarios for what comes next
Maura Mcinerney, legal director of Education Law Center, a non -profit advocacy organization in Pennsylvania, explains what is at stake if the Department of Education disappears:
“The dismantling of the Ministry of Education means that we have no people at the federal level by ensuring that children who experience roaming receive the guarantees of (McKinney-Vento).”
If the department remains, but the financing of McKinney-Vento is grouped in a block subsidy, it said that school districts could spend this money for things that have nothing to do with the homeless student service.
“It would not have come with the requirements they respect the law-that they follow McKinney-Vento and that they are used for children who suffer from homeless,” said Mcinerney.
Aaron Tang, professor of law at the University of California Davis, said that he feared more than the Trump administration decides to unilaterally retain the financing of McKinney -Vento subsidies of States – which could have disastrous consequences for students.
“Whenever you increase an obstacle to financing a program, this increases the chances that the recipients of the program – people who are supposed to be served, children in this case – do not obtain the services they need.”
Meanwhile, Dayana, ninth student, and her family recently found permanent accommodation.
She said she was grateful to the support she had received in the last five years of Megan Mainzer, her McKinney-Vento affair. Mainzer helped her register for college, connected her to peers who have since become close friends, provided clothes and have delivered grocery products to his home and coordinate transport to school.
Dayana said the impact of these resources has changed life for students like her.
