DIVERSITY IN SCHOOL COMMUNITIES
Milwaukee Public Schools encourages both academic achievement and diversity in its school communities by providing high quality, high achieving programs; by providing parents with an array of school choices within MPS; and by providing enrollment and transportation options under the district’s school selection process. Parents who desire a school with a diverse student population will have options to choose one. A diverse school has been identified administratively as a school with an African American population of plus or minus ten percent of the district’s average.

Special Education/Handicapped Accessibility
All district schools serve children with special needs; however, not all services are available at all schools. Parents are advised to work closely with their child’s Individualized Education Program (IEP) team, and the receiving principal/building administrator, to determine which schools are best equipped to meet the needs of the child. Children with disabilities must follow the same rules for transportation as other children, unless the IEP identifies a specialized transportation need or modification.

Parents of children with limited mobility should review and discuss the accessibility needs of the child with the principal/building administrator of the school they wish the child to attend.

Children with special needs are also eligible for the Chapter 220 Voluntary Student Transfer Program and for Public School Open Enrollment.

Homeless Students
All MPS schools strive to remove barriers to academic success for homeless children. That is why MPS has a Homeless Education Program office in Parent and Student Services and a school-based homeless contact in every MPS school to assist homeless children and families.

The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act defines the homeless as “individuals who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence.” This definition includes children and youth whose family has lost housing due to economic difficulties and is sharing the housing of others (doubled-up); who are living in motels, hotels, transitional or emergency shelters, or whose nighttime residence is a place not normally used for housing. Unaccompanied youth and migratory children, who qualify as homeless because they are living in circumstances described above, have the same rights.

Homeless children have many rights and are eligible for many services under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. Examples include: homeless children and youth have the right to stay in the school they attended prior to becoming homeless (the school of origin); transportation from their temporary residence to the school may be provided; homeless students are eligible for free lunch; and homeless children have the right to waivers of school fees and to school supplies.

Parents/guardians of homeless children or unaccompanied youth should discuss the situation with the school-based homeless contact or with the homeless liaisons in the Homeless Education Program at Parent and Student Services so eligibility can be determined and services coordinated.

Call (414) 475-8911 for more information.