This bill creates a new chapter in Title 28A RCW (sections 101–1101 and related sections) establishing state policy, procedures, and duties to ensure unhoused (homeless) children and youths have equal access to free, appropriate public education. It requires the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) to adopt a statewide plan, establish or designate an office of the state coordinator for education of homeless children and youths, collect and publish data and reports, provide technical assistance and professional development, and publish an annually updated list of school district liaisons. The bill imposes procedural requirements on school districts and schools: conduct a best-interest determination that gives priority to the parent/guardian or unaccompanied youth’s request; either continue the student in the school of origin or enroll the student in the local attendance-area school per the best-interest determination; require immediate enrollment even without normally required records; ensure comparable services (transportation, Title I and other educational services, special education, nutrition, etc.); designate a school district liaison with specified duties (identification, enrollment support, referrals, dispute mediation, outreach, transportation assistance, and training); and provide or arrange transportation to the school of origin with rules for cost-sharing between districts. The bill also requires that disputes over eligibility or placement result in immediate enrollment pending resolution and treats information about a student’s living situation as an education record not to be released as directory information. The act creates a grant program administered by OSPI (subject to appropriation) for services to identify, enroll, keep, and support homeless children and youths, with grant terms up to three years, application and reporting requirements, nonsegregation rules, and eligibility conditioned on meeting federal and state standards. The chapter applies to school districts, charter schools, and state-tribal compact schools, and provides that compliance with McKinney-Vento provisions as of January 1, 2026, satisfies equivalent state requirements. If any part of the act conflicts with federal conditions on federal funds, that part is inoperative to the extent of the conflict and rules must conform to federal requirements. Some provisions and deadlines are incomplete or not provided in the extracted text: the submission deadline or format for the superintendent’s state plan is not given, several referenced subsections and some sections (for example, portions of sections 401, 501, 601, 802 and parts of the grant program description) are only partially included or cut off, and specific appropriation details and amounts for grants are not included.

If enacted, the bill would require school districts to give homeless children and unaccompanied youth immediate enrollment and a best-interest school choice (including staying in their school of origin in many cases), designate and train a liaison to identify and support these students, provide comparable services (special education, Title I, nutrition, preschool access, extracurriculars), and arrange transportation with clear rules for sharing costs between districts when a student stays in a school outside their new residence. The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction must stand up a state coordinator, collect and publish counts and reports, and run a competitive grant program (subject to appropriation) to help districts expand services; grants cannot replace regular programs and applicants must meet federal/state standards and show they have not reduced prior fiscal effort. The people and agencies most affected are school districts (which will likely see increased responsibilities, staffing and transportation costs, record-keeping and training needs, and potential new compliance risks), school staff who must carry out outreach and dispute resolution, and parents/unaccompanied youth who gain clearer enrollment and appeal rights. Districts can seek grant funding and may leverage other resources to pay for liaison positions and services, but the bill leaves key funding amounts, the deadline for the statewide plan, and some procedural details unclear, and it makes state requirements inoperative to the extent they conflict with federal funding conditions.