Definition of Children Experiencing Homelessness

According to the McKinney-Vento Homeless Education Assistance Improvements Act, the term "homeless children and youths" means individuals who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence and includes children and youths who are:

• sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or similar reason
  
  
• living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to the lack of alternative adequate accommodations
  
  
• living in emergency or transitional shelters (includes transitional housing programs)
  
  
• abandoned in hospitals or are awaiting foster care placement
  
  
• staying in 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
  
  
• living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, or similar settings
  
  
• runaways or unaccompanied (not in the physical custody of the parent or guardian)
  
  
• migratory who qualify as homeless because of living in circumstances described above