Homeless Families/Foster Care Services

Homeless Children and Youth

The term “homeless children and youth” means individuals who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence.  It includes the following:

  • children and youths who are sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason; are living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to the lack of alternative adequate accommodations; are living in emergency or transitional shelters; or are abandoned in hospitals;

  • children and youths who have a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designed for or ordinarily used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings;

  • children and youths who are living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, or similar settings; and

  • migratory children…who qualify as homeless for the purposes of this subtitle because the children are living in circumstances described above

A homeless student may stay in the same school all year, if feasible, even if he/she moves or may enroll in the school serving his/her temporary address.

 Homeless students are automatically eligible to participate in the school meals program, instructional services through Title I, and other district services intended to support academic success such as tutoring and transportation to the school of best interest.

 Homeless Liaison
Crystal Larcom
Family and Student Services Coordinator
(816) 349-3405
clarcom@center.k12.mo.us

 

Foster Care Students

Foster Care is defined as twenty-four-hour substitute care for children placed away from their parents/guardians and for whom the Children’s Division has placement and care responsibility.  This includes, but is not limited to, placement in foster care family homes, foster homes of relatives, group homes, emergency shelters, residential facilities, childcare institutions, and pre-adoptive homes, regardless of whether the home, shelter, facility, or institution is licensed or receives payments from the state.  A foster care students is any PK-12th grade student who is residing in a foster care setting in this state or who is awaiting foster care.  Center School District recognizes that students in foster care face unusual educational challenges.  Therefore, our goal is to provide foster care students with educational stability and remove barriers to, and provide opportunities for, academic excellence for foster care students. 

 Foster Care Point of Contact
Meagan Patterson
Assistant Superintendent of Student Support and Success
(816) 349-3448
mpatterson@center.k12.mo.us

More information may be obtained from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education website.