Every child has a right to an education. The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act protects the rights of homeless children and youth to receive a free and appropriate public education. Homeless students are defined as those students who lack a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence, including students:
- Sharing housing due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason
- Living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, camping grounds due to a lack of alternative, adequate accommodations
- Living in emergency & transitional shelters
- Abandoned in hospitals
- Living in public or private places not designed for or ordinarily used as regular sleeping accommodations for human beings
- Living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, bus or train stations or similar situations
- Migratory children living in the above situations
