McKinney-Vento Definition of Homelessness

About the Act

The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act was originally passed into law in 1987 and represented the first significant U.S. federal legislative response to homelessness. The Act authorizes assistance to people experiencing homelessness, including housing interventions and supportive services.

Subtitle VII-B, the education subtitle, establishes the definition of homeless used by U.S. public schools and authorizes rights and services to address the unique educational barriers and challenges faced by children and youth experiencing homelessness. The education subtitle was reauthorized most recently by Title IX, Part A of the Every Student Succeeds Act.

McKinney-Vento Definition of Homelessness

The term "homeless children and youths"—

(A) means individuals who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence; and

(B) includes—

(i) children and youths who are sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason; are living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to the lack of alternative adequate accommodations; are living in emergency or transitional shelters; or are abandoned in hospitals;

(ii) children and youths who have a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designed for or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings;

(iii) children and youths who are living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, or similar settings; and

(iv) migratory children who qualify as homeless for the purposes of this part because the children are living in circumstances described in clauses (i) through (iii).

For more information on determining homelessness under the McKinney-Vento Act definition, download the National Center for Homeless Education's Determining Eligibility for McKinney-Vento Rights and Services issue brief.