• Identifying students who qualify for services and reporting that information to the State.
• Writing internal protocols for the counselors to follow when they identify a student who qualifies to be served under McKinney-Vento.
• Making sure that all students served under the McKinney-Vento Act have the same opportunity to access academic, extracurricular and post-secondary resources as those who are not. “An example would be a student who was interested in taking an AP exam or participating in an extracurricular activity but did not have the resources to pay for it. Federal funds through the McKinney-Vento Act could be accessed to support the student and provide access” (M. Crow, personal communication, September 20, 2019). 
• Staying current on all new legal developments by having its Homeless Education Liaison and Director of Guidance and Counseling to attend training at the Texas Homeless Education Office (THEO), and act as a multiplier within the district.

Educating students from poverty and trauma. Backgrounder. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED591937.pdf

• Education, even though it is an important service, is not a right protected under the U.S. Constitution.
• The courts usually refuse to create new substantive rights.
• The Federal Government was designed to have limited powers (U.S. Constitution Amend. X)
• Federal courts are not well equipped to address issues on education usually handled by the states.
• “The doctrine of stare decisis (which lends stability to the law by encouraging courts to stand by their prior decisions) all militate against the creation of a federal constitutional right to education or to supposedly equal school funding” (Lindseth et al, 2017).
• There is no correlation between the amount of money spent and the quality of education.

•  Contrary to the common opinion, the gap between students from high socio-economic status and those from low-income families stayed the same, even though the gap between Black and White students has narrowed over time.
• Student achievement is mainly affected by the level of education of the parents and the teachers’ quality. The correlation of achievement with family income and/or compensatory programs promoted to diminish the gap is weak and decline over time. 
• Although there are gains in student achievement at 8th grade level, these do not continue at the end of high school.
• As Stanford sociologist "Sean Reardon, says, 'rich Americans and poor Americans are living, learning, and raising children in increasingly separate and unequal worlds'”. (Hanushek et al., 2019). This persistent trend suggests the need to re-evaluate current national education policies.

Jensen, E. (2013). Engaging Students with Poverty in Mind: Practical Strategies for Raising Achievement. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

1. Registration is an important moment to identify children that might be homeless and/or have any other special need. The school office personnel should be well trained, so they can collect relevant information concerning the new student and his family. They should look for the assistance of the counselor and/or other staff members if the case requires it. If for any reason, the registration records are inaccurate, identification may also happen as the teacher uses formative assessments and conversations with the student that reveal his background.
2. The first step to comply with federal, state laws, and local policies is to get to know what they require and the benefits offered to the students and their families under each body of law. Educators should get trained and stay current, get to know their students, establish connections with their families and keep all records, so the school can, in turn, share the most accurate data with the state. This is particularly important when the student qualifies for services under special programs.  
3. Considering that the achievement gap is not related to race or federal investment in the education system but to the parents’ level of education and the teacher’s quality, it would be interesting to use financial means to support programs geared towards adult education, professional development, and accountability.
4. Children must have their physical and emotional needs covered to be able to learn and work to their maximum potential. Collaborative work between classroom teachers, parents, the counselor, and community members is the best way to make sure that children are receiving what they need, so they can become productive citizens in the future. 
5. Generational poverty cannot be broken by a legal mandate. It can only happen when the children have opportunities to expand their horizons beyond their immediate environment. Reading, developing new vocabulary, being challenged and nurtured during their daily experiences at school can help to close the achievement gap.
6. Although two lawsuits are currently advocating for a Constitutional reform to include education as a fundamental right, there is no indication that this movement is going to prosper. Educators then have an ethical commitment to do what is right to help all children to be successful and achieve their potential. In doing so, school faculty and staff follow the spirit of the XIV Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015.