I have been working with the McKinney Vento/ Title processes for more than 15 years in the capacity of building and district administration. I have been in small to medium sized rural districts that are not always rich in resources to support our McKinney Vento students and families. I have been able to think outside the box to utilize our Title funding to support our MV students to break down barriers to student success. I attend state and national trainings on the this topic and work closely with our state department. In our district, we have developed partnerships to support our work with our students and their families across three communities within our district. We have two state licensed hair salons that volunteer barbers/beauticians support to help with student's confidence with their appearance. Our district does not have a mass transportation system, so we have developed special bus passes to not allow transportation be a barrier of school attendance. We support our students and their families with Laker Care Packages that provide bare necessities for hygiene, food, etc. These are just some of the out of the box, low cost ideas that we have implemented. Our district works to help every student achieve every day!

Patricia has over 20 years of experience in education law. She represented families in special education hearings for three years, including children in the child welfare system. For the past 17 years, she has concentrated her work on the rights of children and youth experiencing homelessness. She was the primary legal architect of ESSA's amendments to the McKinney-Vento Act. She also worked for 6 months as the Washington State Coordinator for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth and has taught high school.

I have worked for the past 17 years for the Independence Mo School District. During that time I have provided direct, strengths-based services to families and students as well as developing and coordinating various programs. For more than 9 years I served as the District’s Homeless Case Manager, coordinating services and assuring all students identified as homeless in the district were able to fully participate in school. For the past 4 years I have been the McKinney-Vento Liaison for the district. I have attended, as well as presented at, multiple regional and national conferences focusing on providing services and support to students challenged by homelessness.