Homeless Services - Transition Education Program (TEP)

Did you know that on average, it takes 4-6 months to recover academic progress from each school change? Source: Expert panel report submitted in B.H. v. McDonald by Dr. Joy Rogers, Loyola University, Department of Education, 1991.

McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act

Key Elements of McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (2015) - Spanish

Unaccompanied Homeless Youth

• College Cost Reduction and Access Act (CCRA)
• National Runaway Switchboard
• Supporting the Education of Unaccompanied Students Experiencing Homelessness

Education for Homeless Children and Youth

• Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction Homeless Resources (DPI)

What You Need to Know to Help Your Child in School

Lo que necesita saber para ayudar a su hijo en la escuela

Local Resources

The following is a listing of local resources for shelter, food, clothes and other support services offered in Dane County:

United Way of Dane County Help Line When you need help and don't know where to turn call to reach a caring community support specialist.  Available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Dial 2-1-1 from any land line.  608-246-4357 (245-help) from cell or pay phone.

Dane County Homeless.org Local continuum of care, local information and resources specific to homelessness

Homeless Services Consortium, Dane County Committed to preventing and ending homelessness

Dane County Resource Guide (English and Spanish) Helpful numbers, shelter services, laundry,free clothes, meal sites

Homeless Education Network of Dane County  Homeless Liaisons and Community Parnters that meet regularly to discuss topics related to homelessness in schools

Briarpatch

Friends of State Street Resource Guide

Community Coordinated Childcare, Inc. (4C's)

How to Access the Warming House FAQs 

Warming House FAQ

Dane County Pantries:

Personal Essentials Pantry  Listing of Pantries with hours, locations and contact information

City of Madison Directory of Food Pantries (English)

City of Madison Directory of Food Pantries (Spanish)

The River Food Pantry  Food pantry, clothes, and meal site (English & Spanish)

 Video about the River Food Pantry - More then a food pantry

Child Care:

REACH Dane/Head Start - 0-3 year early Head Start and 4 year old Head Start

City of Madison Child Care Assistance Program

FEDERAL

• U.S. Department of Education: Education for Homeless Children and Youths (EHCY) The U.S. Department of Education is the federal agency charged with the administration and oversight of the McKinney-Vento Act's Education for Homeless Children and Youths program.
• National Center for Homeless Education (NCHE) Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, the National Center for Homeless Education is a national resource center of research and information enabling communities to successfully address the needs of homeless children and youth and their families. NCHE products include educational rights posters, parent brochures, the LEA Homeless Education Liaison Handbook, the State Coordinators' Handbook, and the NAEHCY listserv.

NATIONAL ADVOCACY

National Assn. for Education of Homeless Children & Youth (NAEHCY)

National Center on Family Homelessness (NCFH)

NCFH is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to developing long-term solutions to family homelessness. The Center is committed to:

• 1. building a rigorous knowledge base in the areas of family homelessness and poverty
  2. creating model programs, service demonstrations and technical assistance products
  3. disseminating information to increase public awareness and improve national, state, and local policies and programs.

National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty (NLCHP)

NLCHP monitors and enforces compliance with the McKinney-Vento Act, providing technical assistance to attorneys, service providers, parents and educators across the country to ensure that homeless children gain access to public school. The NLCHP website includes a self-advocacy kit, a flowchart for determining homelessness, reproducible Q&A booklets, and many other materials

YOUTH

National Runaway Switchboard

The mission of the National Runaway Switchboard (NRS) is to help keep America’s runaway and at-risk youth safe and off the streets. The organization serves as the federally designated national communication system for runaway and homeless youth.

National Network for Youth (NN4Y)

The National Network for Youth is dedicated to ensuring that young people can be safe and lead healthy and productive lives. In doing so, young people are championed; especially those who because of life circumstance, disadvantage, past abuse or community prejudice have less opportunity to become contributing members of their communities.

Schools of Hope Tutor Training: Homeless and Highly Mobile Students

As our community continues to recognize and support our highly mobile and homeless populations, it’s important for all adults working with students to learn about the issues they face and build strategies for working effectively with them.

These videos will introduce some of the concerns and needs these students experience as well as provide some guidance and suggestions for working with them.

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Click on the Homeless and Highly Mobile Students topic that you would like to learn more about:

The Voices in Our Community is an annual day long experience for students and their families experiencing homelessness hosted by MMSD Transition Education Program (TEP) and the Greater Madison Writing Project (GMWP).  Families are invited and provided with transportation to the UW-Madison Campus to participate in this event.  The day is grounded in writing and art and connects students and families with each other to explore where they come from and who they are. It also provides a way to share their stories with the broader community. The writing and art resulting from this experience are then made into a book by the TEP staff and printed by the Greater Madison Writing Project.  Sales from the book help to sustain this project and provide supports to families experiencing homelessness. 

 The goals of The Voices in Our Community Project include: 

• Empowering youth who have or are experiencing homelessness, find and develop their voice and make a change in their world.
• Helping all family members share experiences that are often not recognized openly in public and provide opportunities to connect with other homeless families. 

The books written by the youth and adult family members provide the MMSD TEP program with a safe way to share the authentic voices of the homeless with educators and also provides awareness and outreach to the community.

Video about Voices in Our Community Project

For more information contact Jani Koester 

TEP Donation Requests