Title 42 › Chapter CHAPTER 119— - HOMELESS ASSISTANCE › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER VI— - EDUCATION AND TRAINING › Part Part B— - Education for Homeless Children and Youths › § 11432
The Secretary gives money to States to help educate homeless children and youths. The amount each State gets is based on a formula tied to other federal education funds, but no State gets less than the greatest of $150,000, one-fourth of 1 percent of the yearly amount appropriated under the law, or what the State got in fiscal year 2001. If there is not enough money for those minimums, the Secretary reduces each State’s share in proportion to what they got the year before. The Secretary also sets aside 0.1 percent for the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and transfers 1 percent to the Department of the Interior for Indian students. States must use the grants to run programs that identify homeless children (including preschoolers), help them enroll and succeed in school, create a State Coordinator office for homeless education, write and follow a State plan, and train school staff and liaisons. At least 75 percent of a State’s grant must go as subgrants to local school districts to provide services under the law (States receiving only the minimum amount must give at least 50 percent). States may not put homeless students in separate schools or separate programs because they are homeless, except for separate schools that operated in fiscal year 2000 in San Joaquin, Orange, and San Diego Counties in California and Maricopa County, Arizona, and only if strict notice, services, nondiscrimination, and oversight rules are met. Each State must have a Coordinator who collects and posts data each year, writes the State plan, reports to the Secretary, coordinates with schools and social service and housing providers, monitors local districts, and helps parents and unaccompanied youths get services. The State plan must explain how homeless children will meet the same State standards, how they will be identified, how disputes over school placement will be settled, how staff will be trained, how preschool and nutrition access will be ensured, and how schools will remove barriers like missing records, residency rules, immunization requirements, guardianship issues, or fees. Local school districts must decide what is in each child’s best interest—usually keeping the child in the “school of origin” when possible—or enroll them immediately in the local school. Schools must enroll homeless students right away even without records, get records from the last school, keep and share records, provide comparable services (transportation, Title I and special education services, career and technical programs, gifted programs, and school meals), coordinate with other agencies, and use a trained liaison to identify students, help with enrollment and services, publicize rights, and resolve disputes. States and districts must review and change policies that block identification, enrollment, or attendance, paying special attention to children not currently in school.
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The Public Health and Welfare — Source: USLM XML via OLRC
Legislative History
Reference
Citation
42 U.S.C. § 11432
Title 42 — The Public Health and Welfare
Last Updated
Apr 6, 2026
Release point: 119-73