Homeless children and youth face numerous obstacles in obtaining an education. All children including homeless are entitled to a free public education. The goal of the Kane County Homeless Education Program is to assist the Kane County school districts by:

• Providing technical assistance
• Increase awareness of definition/rights of the homeless to school administrators, staff and other school district personnel
• Share best practices for the education of homeless children and youth
• Facilitate collaborations between schools, social service agencies (including Continuum of Care), shelters and community groups
• Assist districts to revise policies that create barriers for homeless students
• Assist districts with required data reporting

The federal McKinney-Vento Act requires school districts to be pro-active in finding homeless children who are not attending school and identifying which children and youth are homeless.

KANE ROE EQUAL CHANCE PROGRAM (Federal, Title 42, ch. 119)

• Training school staff, social service agency and community agency staff
• Providing outreach and outreach materials to schools and places that have a frequent in-flux of low income families
• Facilitating bimonthly parent meetings at shelters
• Collaborating with ROE Youth Outreach Officers and Safe Schools Facilitators
• Providing direct and supportive assistance to families/youth in need

This program is administered by the Area One Lead Program and funded by a grant from the Illinois State Board of Education through the McKinney –Vento Homeless Assistance Act of 2001.