Bethany Schultz, the Verona Area School District’s families‑in‑transition coordinator, told the school board that November is Homelessness Awareness Month and urged the community to recognize that homelessness in the district is “often invisible.”

Schultz summarized the McKinney‑Vento Homeless Assistance Act — created in 1987 and updated in 2015 — saying the law’s intent is to remove barriers to enrollment and full participation for students experiencing homelessness. “Students are entitled to immediate enrollment; we don’t require documentation,” she said, noting the law does not require proof of lease, immunizations or birth certificates before a child starts school.

The presentation emphasized how the federal definition focuses on lack of a ‘‘fixed, regular, adequate nighttime residence’’ and includes doubled‑up living arrangements, motels or hotels, trailers and unsheltered locations. Schultz said most local cases are families doubled up with friends or relatives, and that stigma likely leads to undercounting. “So far this year, we’ve identified 82 students as homeless,” she said; by comparison the district identified 123 for the full prior school year.

Schultz described key programmatic protections and supports: the right to attend a school of origin for the remainder of the school year (with district‑provided transportation), automatic eligibility for free lunch, fee waivers, and efforts to ensure participation in extracurriculars. The district uses several transportation modes for school‑of‑origin access, she said — neighborhood buses where feasible, gas‑card mileage reimbursements, local taxi services, and a vetted service (EverDriven) used by about 10 students. Schultz gave a concrete illustration of travel burden: one family was traveling nearly 1,000 miles every two weeks to keep children at their school of origin.

Board members thanked Schultz and highlighted the need for culturally relevant community partners and cross‑system coordination. Schultz urged more community awareness, partnerships to fill gaps, and internal practice refinements (enrollment processes, summer programming, training and attendance protocols) to reduce barriers for students experiencing housing instability.

The board did not take formal action on the presentation; members discussed outreach and data collection steps the district will pursue next.