Chief Judge Helen Gillmor of U.S. District Court has issued a preliminary ruling requiring the state Department of Education do a better job of identifying homeless students, who are entitled to receive assistance from schools under federal law.

In October, the American Civil Liberties Union Hawai'i and two other parties filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of three homeless families against the state. The lawsuit alleged that the DOE was failing to help homeless students get to and from school and that the DOE's policies forced homeless students to unnecessarily change schools. It also claimed that the DOE did not properly inform homeless parents of the their rights under federal law.

Judge Gillmor, who issued a preliminary ruling Monday, is expected to file a written order soon requiring the DOE to meet the requirements of the federal McKinney-Vento Act.

The judge did not rule specifically on the issues of transportation or other services to be provided to homeless students. But she did ask the DOE to change its enrollment procedures so that homeless students can be identified and notified of the assistance they are entitled to receive under the federal law.

"If a parent does not put down a permanent address, we try to find out more about it," said Daniel Hamada, DOE assistant superintendent.

"If we find out they are homeless, we do our best to help them," Hamada said.

Hamada said the DOE is looking into ways to change the enrollment forms so that homeless students can be accurately identified.

However, Hamada pointed out that many parents out of confidentiality fail to disclose they are homeless.

"We can improve, we are going to continue to improve," Hamada said.

Daniel Gluck, staff attorney with ACLU Hawai'i, said the state has failed at helping homeless students get to and from school, one of the requirements of the McKinney-Vento Act.

The state Department of Education receives more than $200,000 annually in federal funds under the McKinney-Vento Act specifically to help homeless students

"Homeless students are entitled to transportation that is comparable to that which is received by nonhomeless children," Gluck said.

Gillmor will likely rule on that specific issue at a later time, Gluck said.

Hamada pointed out that the DOE received a letter from the federal government in January 2007, which specified that the state was in compliance with the federal law.

But Hamada said the DOE recognizes that improvements can be made.

Reach Loren Moreno at lmoreno@honoluluadvertiser.com.