In the last year, California public schools have faced a 9% increase in the number of unhoused students enrolled, prompting school districts to revisit how they provide educational and emotional support. Under the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, passed in 1987, students without fixed or adequate housing, including those living in cars, shelters, motels or temporarily with other families due to financial hardship are guaranteed equal access to education. According to the County of Santa Clara 2025 Point-in-Time count, the housing instability in the county has resulted in an 8.2% increase in the number of people experiencing homelessness as compared to the 2023 PIT count.
In coordination with the regulations of McKinney-Vento, FUHSD has implemented numerous measures to identify students experiencing homelessness and provide the support they need. Currently, Assistant Principal Anthony Nguyen and Guidance Counselor Ashley Voigt serve as the MVHS McKinney-Vento liaisons, and work to better identify and assist these students, connecting them with resources while further ensuring their rights are upheld. Voigt stresses the importance of recognizing that housing instability can exist even in wealthy communities like Cupertino.
“There’s an assumption that everyone’s really well-off financially, and that people don’t have stuff going on at home that is then impacting their attendance or access to school,” Voigt said. “I think the most important thing is knowing that these students definitely exist, even in a very affluent area, and we have to support them.”
FUHSD School Linked Services Specialist Jasmine Kroner, who works in accordance with each school site’s liaison, says that support and services for students under McKinney-Vento may include gift cards, a bus pass or school supplies. Kroner explains that alongside the basic necessities these students receive, students can also communicate with each site’s liaisons for additional needs.
“School counselors meet with the children that are on the McKinney-Vento list, and they complete a request form together, and then I fulfill that request,” Kroner said. “In some cases, we can also provide financial assistance. The other privilege that McKinney-Vento students receive is, regardless of where their families move during the school year, students get to stay at the school that they started at.”
Although the McKinney-Vento program helps ensure stability within schools, the act exists within a broader landscape of housing insecurities which affect many families in the district. Nguyen explains the complexities of California’s housing assistance system and how it affects low income families trying to stay afloat. He says that navigating support programs can be challenging, especially for renters who depend on consistent aid.
“California offers a sort of stipend or voucher where they give low income families money to help afford rent,” Nguyen said. “But of course, certain properties have to qualify; for example, land owners or property owners have to be accepting rent assistance vouchers from housing applicants. If you’re a student or family that has to rent and go through that with a voucher, you’re expecting that voucher to come by every single month, and then you’re going to have to make the difference in terms of rent in order to pay that.”
Both Kroner and Nguyen emphasize the necessity for increased local support and funding within Santa Clara County. Growing up using food stamps and living in a house with two other families while in high school, Nguyen emphasizes that students in need of housing support often face challenges that their peers may not fully understand. Instead of focusing entirely on academics, these students are preoccupied with meeting their most basic needs for the day.
“My mom was the only one working, and then being low income and then living with two other families, it’s difficult,” Nguyen said. “It’s that feeling of not knowing what’s going to be on the kitchen table. You may have a roof under your head, but again, you’re displaced. You’re probably moving from place to place, or sharing a place with somebody else, so privacy is definitely a concern.”
Voigt further describes the uncertainty surrounding a students’ status at campus. She says that educators may not be able to identify unregistered McKinney-Vento students. To counter this issue, Voigt vouches for flyers to be distributed around MVHS’ campus to encourage students who are in need of support to ask for help.
“We used to have flyers around that said if you meet this category, we encourage you to talk to your school counselor,” Voigt said. “I do think there could be more education for our staff members and even our students to just know this help is available because I imagine we are not catching everybody there. I imagine there are students out there who just don’t even know the support is available and aren’t talking to people about it because they’re worried, ashamed, but they shouldn’t feel that way.”
Kroner says that the McKinney-Vento foster youth list includes about 70 FUHSD students as of this academic school year, although this list changes constantly as staff are able to identify more students. However, she emphasizes that this number is most certainly an undercount. The district liaisons are aware of students being uncomfortable sharing information regarding unstable housing when they are actively dealing with evictions or living in shared housing with multiple relatives. She says that while this makes it difficult to provide them support, the district must continue its efforts.
“The list has grown significantly compared to where it was five years ago, meaning that we are doing a better job of identifying students who are entitled to the McKinney-Vento rights and privileges, which is good because we want them to be able to have access to those things,” Kroner said. “But it’s a double-edged sword too, because it means that there’s more need out there that we’re not meeting. I know that there’s more need out there, and I don’t want students to feel ashamed because they’re struggling financially, because they’re absolutely not alone.”
