BARRIERS TO ENROLLMENT

While homeless children’s access to a quality education has improved under McKinney, many obstacles to the enrollment and attendance still persist. One of the largest obstacles is the extremely limited amount of resources available to implement the McKinney Act. When Congress first passed the McKinney Act in 1987, it authorized states to receive $50 million for the education of homeless children and youth. In the ten years since its passage, the EHCY program has yet to receive full funding. The program's FY01 funding level ($35 million) is inadequate to meet current demands. As a result of lack of funds for the EHCY program, many states are serving only a small portion of their estimated population of homeless children. Only 3% of all local education agencies receive McKinney funds (Anderson et al., 1995). Other barriers to enrollment and access to quality public schools includes:

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 Homeless youth are often prevented from enrolling in and attending school by curfew laws, liability concerns, and legal guardianship requirements (Anderson et al., 1995)
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 Homeless pre-schoolers also face difficulty accessing public preschool education.
 
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 Two subpopulations of children who face increased barriers to education are unaccompanied homeless youth and homeless pre-schoolers.
 
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 According to a 1997 survey conducted by the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, 30% of state coordinators estimated that few or no homeless children were enrolled in preschool.
 
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 In addition, 70% of all respondents (state coordinators and service providers) reported that funding was inadequate to meet the preschool needs of homeless children.
 
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 80% of all respondents indicated that public preschool programs have waiting lists from less than 30 days to more than 12 months (National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, 1997).
 
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 Findings from a three-year Head Start Demonstration Project reveal numerous challenges in serving homeless children and their families, including recruiting and enrolling homeless families; retaining homeless families and children in project services; involving homeless parents; and meeting the unique needs of homeless children and parents (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1999).
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 Lack of transportation to or from temporary residence (National Coalition for the Homeless)
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 Lack of immunization and medical records (National Coalition for the Homeless)
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 Lack of school records (National Coalition for the Homeless)
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 State guardianship/residency requirements not uniformly interpreted by schools (National Coalition for the Homeless)
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 Frequent mobility (National Coalition for the Homeless)
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 Lack of staff awareness and sensitivity (National Coalition for the Homeless)
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 Inability to complete school assignments (National Coalition for the Homeless)
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 Lack of psychological services (National Coalition for the Homeless)
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 Poor health and inadequate medical care (National Coalition for the Homeless)
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 Physical needs—food, clothing, health care (National Coalition for the Homeless)
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 Lack of birth certificates (National Coalition for the Homeless)