• A superintendent says transportation to the school of origin isn’t feasible…

• A principal insists Jamie is no longer eligible for McKinney-Vento because she was doubling up with the same family last school year…

• A parent is complaining about her child having to ride public transportation to school…

Who’s right?It’s time to…

Call the Law!

Welcome

Call the Law! is a team-based interactive learning session involving

homeless education scenarios

What’s the point?

When processing scenarios, we may:• receive a lot of information, only some of which is

germane to the issue that needs to be resolved• rely on commonly held notions of what the law says

without really knowing• need to be able to support our position by referring

to the provisions of the law and/or guidance

So, how does this work?

• The emcee will present 15-18 homeless education scenarios, depending on time

• You and your tablemates will work as a team to “solve the scenario”

• The first table that rings in with the correct response earns points; to ring in, your team captain must raise his/her hand

• A table that rings in with an incorrect response loses points• What are we playing for?

– The admiration and esteem of your colleagues– Candy

Tell me more…

• The emcee reads the scenario• Teams discuss the scenario and work on their

response• The correct response to the scenario– is based on an excerpt from the law;– will consist of an excerpt from the law; additional points

will be given for providing the correct citation.

Tell me more about these points…

• A team that rings in first with the correct response can receive a total of 100 points per scenario:– 75 points for the correct excerpt from the law– 25 points for the correct citation from the law

• A team that rings in with an incorrect response will lose 50 points

Halvsies?

The Call the Law! judges are looking for a particular excerpt and citation from the law

If, however, a team provides a different excerpt that resolves the issue presented in the

scenario, judges may grant half of the normal point value at their discretion.

Let’sPractice!

The Director of Migrant Education in your district approaches you, the local homeless education liaison, about ensuring that all migrant students in the district are granted McKinney-Vento eligibility. You explain that migrant students aren’t automatically eligible for McKinney-Vento students, only migrant students who live in circumstances described in the definition of homeless children and youth. The Migrant Director wants to know where this is stated.Your response?... Call the Law!

(hint – the answer is in Section 42 U.S.C. § 11434a…)

LET’S BEGIN!

You are new to the position of local liaison. You are preparing to present to teachers at your school district’s in-service day and want to help people understand what you do. Your State Coordinator has encouraged you to use legislative wording and citations whenever possible when presenting on the McKinney-Vento Act. You want to make sure you describe your duties exactly as they are written in the law, getting the wording and citation right.Your response?... Call the Law!

Stacy came to enroll in one of the schools in your district last week. You, the local liaison, learned that Stacy’s mom, a single parent struggling with addiction, had disappeared a month ago and Stacy had been staying at different friends’ homes since then. You allowed Stacy to enroll herself as an unaccompanied homeless youth. Yesterday, the principal at Stacy’s school calls you and insists that you never should have enrolled Stacy because her mom still has legal custody, so Stacy is not unaccompanied and, therefore, should have had her mom’s signature on the enrollment papers. You explain to the principal that even though Stacy’s mom still has legal custody, Stacy is still unaccompanied. The principal’s response? “Prove it.”Your response?... Call the Law!

You are in your fourth year of serving as the State Coordinator. You’ve known for some time that your State’s McKinney-Vento plan was woefully inadequate and have decided to tackle the job of updating the plan. When you submit the revised plan to your SEA’s Federal Programs Director to review, she questions why you included a description of awareness programs about the needs of homeless youth to be provided to school district personnel other than the local liaison.Your response?... Call the Law!

PT 1

Continuing to review the revised plan, your SEA’s Federal Programs Director also questions why you include information about procedures to make sure that young homeless children have equal access to public preschool programs. She thought the state plan only needed to include information about K-12 education.Your response?... Call the Law!

PT 2

You are the local liaison for a school district that recently applied for, but was denied, a McKinney-Vento subgrant. You call your State Coordinator to request an explanation and she explains that your district’s application was incomplete because it did not include an assessment of the needs of homeless students in your district. Upon hanging up, you make plans in your mind to submit a formal complaint about the State Coordinator to the SEA. But, first, you must find out where it says that a needs assessment should be included in the subgrant application.Your response?... Call the Law!

You’re trying to sort through a tough issue with a mom in your district. The single mom and her two children, one entering kindergarten and the other entering third grade, became homeless over the summer and are now living in a motel in a nearby community. The third grader will continue to attend his school of origin, Choctaw Elementary. However, Choctaw Elementary is telling the mom that she needs to enroll her kindergartner in the local school near the motel where they’re staying. The mom insists that her kindergartner has school of origin rights, too. In the stress of the moment, you feel confused. Is this true? Does the kindergartner have school of origin rights?Your response?... Call the Law!

You are the local liaison for Mangrove School District. Sam, a district student, and his family were evicted from their apartment over the summer and are living in a relative’s garage within the district, but not in the attendance zone of Coquina Elementary, Sam’s school of origin. You qualify Sam as McKinney-Vento eligible. Sam’s parents want him to continue attending Coquina Elementary. You call Coquina Elementary to explain what has happened and that Sam will continue to attend there. The principal resists and says that Sam doesn’t have the right to stay in that school because his family lost housing over the summer and not during the school year. He says Sam should enroll in Salty Springs Elementary, the school zoned for where he’s living now.Your response?... Call the Law!

PT 1

Several days later, Sam’s mom calls and wants to change where Sam attends school. She just got a new job and no longer will be home when Sam gets home from school. Instead of Sam attending Coquina Elementary (his school of origin) or Salty Springs Elementary (the local school), she’d like Sam to be able to attend Sea Cow Elementary. It has a good reputation and is right near the house of a friend who is willing to keep Sam after school. The mom insists that since Sam is a McKinney-Vento student, that he should be able to attend any school in the district.Your response?... Call the Law!

PT 2

You, the local liaison, receive a call from Stephanie Miller, who is your school-based contact in one of the schools in your district. She is enrolling a girl who she believes qualifies for McKinney-Vento services. She is asking the girl’s father to provide a phone number in case of emergency, but the father refuses to do so. The father has become very angry and insists that the McKinney-Vento Act says that he doesn’t have to provide any information or documentation to enroll his daughter. Ms. Miller is flustered and doesn’t know how to respond. She asks you if the McKinney-Vento Act prohibits her from requiring an emergency contact phone number. Your response?... Call the Law!

You are the local liaison for Palms School District. You’ve just hung up with Ms. Jack, the mother of Julian, whom you deemed McKinney-Vento eligible. Ms. Jack was worried because she can’t find Julian’s records, even though she’s sure he has all needed immunizations. You tell Ms. Jack not to worry and that you’ll assist her in obtaining his records. Ms. Gulch, a nosy coworker, overheard your conversation and stated that you shouldn’t get involved since a child’s immunization history is private, and helping with that goes beyond your required duties anyway. You calmly explain to Ms. Gulch that as the local liaison, you are required to help Ms. Jack gather Julian’s immunization records. To settle the issue once and for all, you…Call the Law!

You serve as the local liaison in a large urban district with a McKinney-Vento subgrant. A shelter network with a number of branches throughout the city approaches you with an offer of providing space in each of their shelters for an after-school program for the students who live in their shelters. Your district would need to provide the lead staff, with volunteer church members providing support. You want to help but aren’t sure if the district is allowed to spend subgrant funds to provide services to McKinney-Vento students in locations other than on school grounds. You thank the shelter network director for the call and let him know that you’ll get back with him as soon as possible. Now, it’s time to do your research.Your response?... Call the Law!

Luis and his mom, Arlene Sanchez, moved out of their apartment in a neighboring county over the summer and moved in with Arlene’s parents, who live in your district, in July. Arlene’s father is ill and she wants to help her mother take care of him. Arlene wants Luis to attend the same school he attended last year and receive transportation. She says Luis should have this since he should be McKinney-Vento eligible because they are sharing housing with her parents. You explain that not all shared housing arrangements automatically qualify as homeless, but the mother insists you are wrong.Your response?... Call the Law!

And the winning team is…