Charter, Laboratory, and Virtual Schools

The McKinney-Vento Act is a federal law that applies to all local educational agencies (LEAs) in the United States. North Carolina defines all Charter, Laboratory, and Virtual Schools as LEAs. NCHEP works closely with Charters, Labs, and Virtual Schools to ensure that their homeless liaisons are equipped to support students experiencing homelessness.


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Resources

2023-2024SY Charter School Calendar

Serving Homeless Children and Youth in Charter Schools

This brief from the National Center for Homeless Education focuses on how the McKinney-Vento Act should be applied in charter schools.

Charter Schools and Students Experiencing Homelessness: Practices and Recommendations for Success

This report from SchoolHouse Connection demonstrates the experiences and outcomes of students experiencing homelessness enrolled in charter schools.

Toolkit: How Charter Schools Can Support Students Experiencing Homelessness

This toolkit from SchoolHouse Connection is intended as a charter school-focused resource that explains the basic legal requirements of the McKinney Vento Act while highlighting a few examples of best practices from the charter school community.

Charter Schools & Homeless Education

NCHEP provided our homeless liaisons with an Information Session to discuss what a charter school is and some differences their liaisons may face when working with students experiencing homelessness.


Needs Assessment

Needs assessments are to be utilized by your LEA to guide decisions concerning your Homeless Education Program. This tool will allow liaisons to recognize the needs of their program and then implement a plan to meet those needs. Our office has provided multiple templates that liaisons can choose from and determine which would best fit their program.

Charter Needs Assessment Checklist

This template should be used by LEAs that on average identify less than 10 students experiencing homelessness a school year.

Charter Needs Assessment

This template should be used by LEAs that identify more than 10 students experiencing homelessness a school year. The more students your school is serving the more in-depth your needs assessment should be.

Traditional LEA Needs Assessment

While this template is used by our traditional school districts, Charters, Labs, and Virtual Schools are welcome to utilize it if they see fit.

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NCHEP Tools

Dispute Policy

NCHEP has provided Charter, Lab, and Virtual School liaisons with a template to help create their school’s McKinney-Vento Dispute Policy.

Website Posting

Ensuring that parents, guardians, and unaccompanied homeless youth are informed of their rights under the McKinney-Vento Act and whom they should contact at their local school is an important responsibility of the homeless liaison. NCHEP has provided a template for LEA’s McKinney-Vento website posting to meet this requirement.

Appointing and Onboarding a Homeless Liaison

Follow the checklist NCHEP created when you are appointing and onboarding a new homeless liaison at your Charter, Lab, or Virtual School.


A message to new Charter School Homeless Liaisons from the 2022-2023 Charter School Homeless Liaison of the Year.