Posted: February 27th, 2024
What is McKinney-Vento What is Pendency for Special Education ?
What is McKinney-Vento What is Pendency for Special Education ? APA REFERENCE.
McKinney-Vento
The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act is a federal law that provides protections and support for children and youth experiencing homelessness in the United States (National Center for Homeless Education, 2022). Key provisions include:
Requiring states to ensure that homeless children have equal access to public education as housed children (National Coalition for the Homeless, 2022).
Prohibiting segregation of homeless students on the basis of their housing status (Legal Aid Justice Center, 2024).
Requiring schools to immediately enroll homeless students, even if they lack typically required documents (National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, 2023).
Entitling homeless students to remain enrolled in their school of origin when feasible (SchoolHouse Connection, 2021).
Requiring transportation be provided to the school of origin (National Center for Homeless Education, 2022).
Pendency for Special Education
Pendency refers to a student’s current educational placement, which must be maintained during legal proceedings related to special education (Disability Rights California, 2020). Specific provisions include:
If a parent files for a special education hearing, the student has a right to “stay put” in their current placement during proceedings (Center for Parent Information and Resources, 2022).
Pendency placement refers to aspects like educational program, related services provided, with whom the child is educated, and where services are delivered ( Disability Rights California, 2020).
So in summary, McKinney-Vento protects the rights of homeless students to education, while pendency preserves special education students’ current supports during disputes.
References
Center for Parent Information and Resources. (2022). Staying in the current placement. https://www.parentcenterhub.org/placement-stayput/
Disability Rights California. (2020). Special education rights and responsibilities. https://www.disabilityrightsca.org/publications/special-education-rights-and-responsibilities
Legal Aid Justice Center. (2024). Educational barriers for homeless children and youth. https://www.justice4all.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Homeless-Education-Fact-Sheet-FINAL-1.pdf
National Center for Homeless Education. (2022). McKinney-Vento law into practice. https://nche.ed.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/mv.pdf
National Coalition for the Homeless. (2022). Education of homeless children and youth. https://nationalhomeless.org/issues/education/
National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty. (2023). Don’t count me out: How homelessness can impact school success. https://homelesslaw.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/DontCountMeOut_ITC_Annual_2018.pdf
SchoolHouse Connection. (2021). Early childhood homelessness. https://schoolhouseconnection.org/early-childhood-homelessness/