Homeless students in the Hopkinton School District will be admitted to school despite the usual requirement to have a fixed address to be considered a resident.

The district is updating its policies, including criteria for admitting homeless students. According to Superintendent Brian Blake, such a policy is federally mandated.

“This policy is not anything unique or special to Hopkinton,” he said. “We’re just doing an overall update of all our school board policies and this is just one of many that we’re updating.”

But Blake is quick to point out that the act of being homeless does not necessarily imply an individual is living on the street.

Under the federal McKinney- Vento Act, a homeless person could be defined as the following:

• An individual who lacks a fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence, and
• An individual who has a primary nighttime residence that is a supervised public or privately operated shelter designed to provide temporary living accommodations, including welfare hotels, congregate shelters, and transitional housing for the mentally ill; a facility that provides a temporary residence for individuals prior to being institutionalized; or a public or private place not designed as a regular sleeping accommodation for humans.

Though rare, Blake said at different times there have been and are Hopkinton students who may have been kicked out of their parents’ home or may have parents or guardians who may have been evicted from their home.

In those cases, he said, a student may be living with a relative or friend in Hopkinton, which is not their legal residence.

The first reading of the Hopkinton district’s policy further breaks down the criteria for homelessness, including the following:
• Sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing or economic hardship;
• Living in motels, hotels, trailer parks or camping grounds due to lack of alternative adequate accommodations;
• Living in emergency or transitional shelters;
• Are abandoned in hospitals;
• Awaiting foster care placement;
• Living in public or private places not designed for or ordinarily used as regular sleeping accommodations for humans;
• Living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, transportation stations or similar settings;
• Are migratory children living in conditions described in previous examples.

School board Chairman Marshall Rowe said the board is committed to working out a fair policy and has just completed the first of three readings, or drafts.

“We certainly have homeless children in the district now, so this just established the procedures in which we recognize homeless status,” he said. “It’s clear we are committed to doing it because it’s an obvious but, nonetheless, necessary policy we have to go over and set.”

Students will be entitled to transportation within the district, according to the first draft of the policy, and those without immunization records will be admitted under a personal exception.

Moreover, the policy says a district liaison for homeless students and their families will coordinate with local social service agencies, other school districts on transportation issues, and state and local housing agencies.

The liaison will also review the policy and make recommendations that could potentially act as admittance barriers for homeless students.

“There is no question that we provide full and normal education to those who may be (legally defined as) homeless in the school district,” said Rowe.

The school board will vote on the district budget at its next meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 19, at 6:30 p.m. at Maple Street Elementary School.