Senate Bill 679 Summary

• State Board of Education shall establish by December 31, 2015 a uniform process to track expenditures for transporting homeless students under the McKinney Vento Act, with total expenditures posted on the State Department of Education's website.

• State Board of Education shall report to Governor and Legislature by January 10, 2017 and every odd-numbered year thereafter on identified homeless students enrolled in public schools and their academic performance, including test scores, graduation rates, dropout rates, absenteeism, truancy, and suspension/expulsion data disaggregated by race, ethnicity, income level, English language learner status, migrant status, special education, and gender.

• State Board of Education shall develop or acquire by July 1, 2016 a training module for administrators, teachers, and support employees on identifying homeless students and providing services, to be posted on the State Department of Education's website along with a list of available services.

• State Board of Education shall distribute best practices by July 1, 2016 for selecting and training school-designated homeless student liaisons.

• School districts shall strongly encourage annual staff review of homeless identification resources and require district liaisons to attend State Department of Education trainings; districts shall include information about homeless services in materials provided to students and families using multiple communication methods.