§ 21-321 Educational continuity.
AC § 21-321
a. Definitions. For the purposes of this section, the following terms have the following meanings: Intake facility. The term "intake facility" means the location where families with children apply for temporary emergency housing with the department, such as the prevention assistance and temporary housing facility, or a successor entity. Shelter applicants. The term "shelter applicants" means families with children in the process of applying for emergency shelter with the department at an intake facility with no prior shelter history or application for shelter within the last 90 days. b. As part of the intake process at an intake facility, the department shall offer or otherwise make available to all shelter applicants written materials and information on educational continuity. The department shall additionally permit the department of education access to intake facilities for the purpose of holding discussions with shelter applicants on educational continuity, and shall work with the department of education to facilitate such discussions. Such materials, information, and discussions shall include but not be limited to the following: 1. Information on the education rights of any preschool-aged and school-aged children relating to school access and educational continuity rights; 2. Information on transportation and/or enrolling in a new school for any school-aged children; 3. Information relating to early childhood care and education options for shelter applicants with children under 5 years old, including 3-K and Pre-K for All, EarlyLearn, and other forms of subsidized child care, including child care vouchers; 4. Information relating to referring children for evaluations for early intervention services and preschool special education services; and 5. Information on homeless students' rights, including a summary of students' rights pursuant to the McKinney-Vento homeless assistance act of 1987, as enacted by public law 100-77. c. Any information provided to shelter applicants concerning educational continuity shall include contact information for relevant staff at the department of education. In the event that a representative of the department of education is unavailable and is not scheduled to be available to discuss educational continuity with a shelter applicant during the intake process at an intake facility, the department shall provide such shelter applicant with written materials pursuant to subdivision b and with contact information for relevant staff at the department of education who can assist with matters related to educational continuity. (L.L. 2018/082, 1/19/2018, eff. 7/18/2018)
