The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act authorizes the U.S. Department of Education to periodically collect data on the identification of and services provided to homeless students.  Maintaining records on the number of homeless students identified and served could also protect districts from allegations of discrimination.  Each district is required to have a policy about the retention and sharing of homeless pupil records consistent with state and federal laws.

The McKinney-Vento Act defines homeless children and youth as individuals who lack a fixed, regular, adequate night-time residence. The term includes children and youth who:

• share the housing of other persons due to the 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;

• are abandoned in hospitals; • are awaiting foster care placement;

• have a primary night-time residence that is a public or private place not designed for or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings;

• are living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, or similar settings; migratory children who qualify as homeless because they are living in circumstances described above.

• migratory children who qualify as homeless because they are living in circumstances described above.