Liaison E-Alert: Welcome Back, McKinney-Vento Liaisons!
Back-to-School Updates
Dear Liaisons,
Welcome back! We hope you had a restful summer and would like to wish you a great start to the 2019-20 school year.
As you and McKinney-Vento liaisons throughout New York kick off the new school year, we want to share some important reminders and updates to support your work assisting students in temporary housing.
This e-mail includes the following:
- Back-to-School Reminders
- Scholarship Opportunity
- Early Childhood Guide
- Upcoming Events
- NYS-TEACHS Services
Best,
NYS-TEACHS
Back-to-School Reminders
Update Your District Contact Information: Are you still the McKinney-Vento Liaison? Or, are you the new McKinney-Vento Liaison for your district or charter school? Please let us know! You can review and update your McKinney-Vento Liaison contact information by using our liaison search form and submitting up-to-date information on the liaison update form on our website.
Distribute Housing Questionnaires: Whether you work for a school district or a charter school, you are required to provide a Housing Questionnaire to all newly enrolling students and to all families who report a change of address. As a best practice, we encourage you to distribute the questionnaire to all students at the start of each school year.
Plan for Use of Title I, Part A: Students who are identified as eligible for McKinney-Vento protections are categorically eligible for Title I services. Collaborate with your Title I Coordinatorto make sure that the set-aside funding is effectively used to support students in temporary housing. For more information about how the set-aside funding can be used, visit our Title I page.
Connect Students with Free Meals: All students in temporary housing are categorically eligible for free school meals, regardless of family income. Students in temporary housing are not required to complete any applications to participate in the free meal program. Please make sure that your food services coordinator has the names of all eligible students on their free meals list so that they can benefit.
Scholarship Opportunity
From SchoolHouse Connection: Do you know any youth who have experienced homelessness, were born on or after November 11, 1999, and plan to attend college for the first time in the fall of 2020?
Please invite them to apply for the SchoolHouse Connection Youth Leadership & Scholarship Program. Applications are open now, and the deadline is November 10, 2019.
Early Childhood Guide
Don’t miss out on this fantastic guide from the NYS Early Childhood Advisory Council (ECAC)!
Included in the guide is a handy chart where you are prompted to look up community-specific information about early care and education programs. Then you can easily share the document (a fillable PDF) with families!
Remember: As a liaison, you are responsible for connecting young children who are homeless with services. And this chart can help!
Upcoming Events
As the McKinney-Vento Liaison, you are required to attend training on the McKinney-Vento Act and your important role. We will be offering a series of McKinney-Vento-related webinars and trainings throughout the Fall and Winter. For a complete listing of upcoming fall events, visit and bookmark our New York State Events page. This year’s Annual Workshops are in Buffalo and Syracuse!
Buffalo
Thursday, November 7, 2019
Hotel Henry
Syracuse
Thursday, November 14, 2019
Embassy Suites, Syracuse
Please remember, when registering for online and in-person trainings, to enter your full name and up-to-date professional and contact information if you would like to receive credit and/or confirm attendance to both online and in-person trainings.
Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for social workers will be available for Workshops and On-Site Trainings unless otherwise specified. To receive CEUs, you must be present for the entire training. We do not offer CEUs for webinars.
NYS-TEACHS
We’re Here to Help!
Toll-Free Infoline: Call us at (800) 388-2014. Our Infoline is open from 9 am – 5 pm, Monday through Friday.
Free Posters and Brochures: We offer State Education Department-approved posters and brochures that you can use for outreach. You can order as many as you need and we will mail them at no cost to you.
NYSTEACHS.ORG: We update our website frequently to provide you with current guidance memos, resources, and training materials. You can browse information by topic, watch a recorded webinar, look up the name of a liaison from a neighboring district, and more.