For the first time in 10 years, the District has applied for -- and is now receiving -- aid under a federal program to help homeless schoolchildren. For those 10 years, D.C. was the only state or territory that was not applying.

The money is for training school staff, providing students with school supplies, and other uses.

Advocates for the homeless say the money -- about $300,000 from the federal government, on top of about $250,000 that the District supplies -- is sorely needed for dealing with the special difficulties of homeless children in schools. And Bernice Green, a homeless mother of four school-age children, agrees.

Green said that her family did not have enough money for notebooks and other supplies at the start of the school year and could not afford the uniform shirts her twin boys were required to wear.

A key part of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act is that it tries to provide stability for homeless children who change addresses often. It removes barriers to education such as the requirements for documentation and records when families register at a new school. The act, which has been in place since 1987, also subsidizes transportation, since under the law, children can go to the school they attended before they became homeless or the school in which they were last enrolled, as well as the one serving the area in which they currently live.

Though the school year has just begun, this new money already appears to be having an effect. As of Sept. 1, the school district had trained principals and registrars and was in the process of training "homeless liaisons," who are usually counselors, social workers, psychologists or others with similar training, according to Deltonia Shropshire, the education program specialist with the D.C. government's Office of Transitory Services. The liaisons are being trained later than the others because they had to be selected, she added.

Because of the training financed with the McKinney-Vento funds, "we have not had the number of questions (on homelessness) we experienced in the past," Shropshire said.

The amount of money available under McKinney-Vento changes from year to year, but Emily Benfer, an attorney with the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, said the District had forfeited over $1.5 million through its decade-long failure to apply.

Accounts varied on why the District had stopped applying, but a major factor seems to have been a suit filed against the District for non-compliance with the transportation part of the assistance. Under McKinney-Vento, state and local governments receive federal funds for the transportation but have to make arrangements for the buses and other forms of transit.

Some sources stressed, however, that at the time, D.C. was short of funding and under a financial control board.

But whatever the reason for the funding lapse, "We need to close that chapter" and "keep (the program) moving," said Shropshire.

Last fall, Benfer drafted a letter to the D.C. Board of Education and City Council urging them to put the District back on track for the McKinney-Vento funding. The letter was signed by advocacy groups, family homeless shelter residents, and other individuals.

Board of Education member JoAnne Ginsberg said the letter came shortly after she had read a newspaper article saying that the District was the only jurisdiction in the United States that was not receiving the McKinney-Vento funds. The letter "hit a nerve with me," she said.

Ginsberg sponsored a resolution, unanimously approved by the board Jan. 17, directing Superintendent Clifford Janey to submit an application for the funds. The council also adopted a law to implement McKinney-Vento in the District, but expanded it in some ways. Benfer said that one key addition is that the D.C. law makes families who are in transitional housing eligible for the assistance. She pointed to a wealth of statistics from studies over the past seven years that she said make it clear that assistance to homeless schoolchildren should be a priority.

Homeless children in the District are one and a half times more likely than other students to repeat a grade. Additionally, more than half of children in homeless families in D.C. transfer schools at least once during the school year, with almost 10% transferring three times or more. With each change in schools, a student is set back academically by an average of four to six months -- and the average homeless family in the District moves every six months, Benfer added.

There is not a consensus on how many of the approximately 65,000 children in the D.C. public school system are homeless. Shropshire said the number was "over 1,500," but declined to be more specific. Benfer said the figure was likely much higher than 1,500 and that "there are an overwhelming number of children in D.C. schools who are homeless beyond the figures captured in statistics or living in homeless shelters." McKinney-Vento, she said, "will allow us to reach out to them by heightening awareness, increasing identification, and removing barriers to education so that more of our children will have the opportunity to succeed and escape homelessness."

Benfer said homeless D.C. parents who need more information on enrolling their children could contact the homeless liaison at their child's school, the D.C. government's Homeless Children and Youth Program (202 698-3321) or the U.S. Department of Education (202 401-0113). They also can contact her clinic (202 328-5500) and other advocacy groups, she said.