McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Assistance Act  Lack a “fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence”  5-10% of the FRL population  Living situation examples: – Sharing the housing of another due to loss of housing, economic hardship or similar reason – Motels, campgrounds, trailers, or tents – Emergency or transitional shelters – Public or private places not designed for human sleeping – Cars, parks, public places, abandoned buildings, bus terminals, train stations, or substandard housing – Awaiting foster care placement

Homeless Enrollment  Must be enrolled immediately, even if records are not available (educational, medical exam, immunizations etc.)  Enrollment- defined as attending classes and participating fully in school activities  Cannot require the caregiver to obtain legal guardianship or notarized statement

Homeless/Foster Care Coding  Coding of a student’s homeless or foster care status/eligibility is completed by the district office only  School enters the assignment code if the student lives out of the boundary and maintains their school of origin  84- Homeless  29- Foster Care  Assignment codes must be re-entered for each new school year if the homeless/foster care status is the same

Questions? Student Services Department Homeless Education Assistance Resource Team (HEART) Foster Care Liaison

The Problem Broward County attendance rates are lower than that of other large districts in the State Broward’s average daily attendance rate is lower than the State’s Positive correlation between attendance and academic achievement, hence graduation. Everyone’s work is linked to improving the graduation rate in Broward County Public Schools.

REMINDERS! Accurate attendance taking is legally mandated. The District prescribes to accurate attendance taking. Every teacher must take attendance for every class/period. Report available daily to indicate teachers not in compliance with proper attendance taking practices so support can be provided. Accurate attendance data will be in TERMS at day’s end

Change In Attendance Taking Practices Eliminate using a single period of the day for computing attendance. Implement instead, computation based on each period, each day. All changes made by the IT Department

Rationale for the Change A review of attendance practices in large school districts revealed some stark differences from Broward County. For example, student considered present if: Student present for at least 30 minutes of the day. Student present in ANY class for the day. New Practice In Broward – a student is considered present if present for any class throughout the day.

Things to Remember Pinnacle will only count the student as absent if marked absent by every teacher that day. If a teacher fails to take attendance then attendance report will be incorrect Pinnacle cannot differentiate between: – student marked present and teacher not taking attendance; – Teacher only recording students who were absent

Attendance Resources Attendance CAB Conference for daily questions and sharing of ideas: – Ensure you have access, if not, contact us District point person for consultation: – Mr. Terence McGarry, LCSW Contact at Call at