McKinney Vento Program - for families experiencing homelessness or are currently in transition

Is your family experiencing homelessness? 

Are you living without a fixed, adequate, stable living condition?  

Were you forced to move in with others due to financial hardship or other situation?

Did you experience a fire or other emergency that displaced your family?

It is possible your family might qualify for the McKinney-Vento program.

The McKinney Vento program is a federal program aimed to provide academic stability and consistency for our students who would otherwise be transferring schools, sometimes multiple times in a year.

If your family qualifies, you have options for your student to access his or her education.  If the temporary living situation is close enough to transport to the home school in a reasonable amount of time, transportation will be provided by the district, at no cost to you.  Whether you are in a shelter, staying with friends or a family member, transportation can and will follow your student throughout the transition(s), to allow him/her to remain at the home school.

If the move resulted in transition that is an unreasonable distance for traveling to and from the home school, you can enroll your student immediately into the closest school.  

In addition, your child would also qualify for free breakfast and lunch, as well as receiving a weekend food bag to take home (called a PowerPack), that helps supplement the pantry at home.  There are typically a couple meal items, a breakfast item, snacks and a beverage.

Occasionally, other resources become available as well, which you will be informed of as they arise.

We understand that to educate your child, s/he needs to be ready for school by having access to basic necessities.  And sometimes there are challenging situations that make basic necessities hard to come by.  We want to partner with you to support you and your family as best as we can to help you through these challenging situations.

If you feel your family might qualify for this program, please contact Veronica Kaipainen by phone at 253.800.2479 or by email at vkaipainen@bethelsd.org. 

You could also contact one of our district liaisons, Echo Abernathy at 253.800.6857 / eabernathy@bethelsd.org or Danielle Stanford at 253.800.6852 / dstanford@bethelsd.org