1 In Every 10 Kids In NYC Public Schools Was Homeless Last Year, Research Shows

NEW YORK CITY — The number of homeless students in New York City's public schools is now one in every 10, new data shows. The numbers were released Tuesday by the New York State Technical and Education Assistance Center for Homeless Students.

Some 111,562 of the city's roughly 1.1 million students were homeless during the 2016-17 school year, a 5.8 percent jump from the year before, the data show. The school system's homeless population has risen 38.4 percent in the past five years, according to previous data from the center, a state Education Department-funded project of the nonprofit Advocates for Children of New York.

The five boroughs contain about three quarters of the more than 148,000 homeless students statewide. About 7,900 of the city's students go to charter schools, and roughly a third — 37,815 — attend city-run schools in the Bronx.

The numbers, first reported by The New York Times, reflect another dimension of the city's growing homelessness crisis and track with growth in the homeless population. About 60,000 people are currently living in city shelters, up from 51,000 in 2014 and 38,000 in 2011, according to the Department of Homeless Services.

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City education officials have recently worked to aid homeless students, who are statistically more likely to miss school, get suspended and score lower on standardized tests, said Randi Levine, the policy director for Advocates for Children of New York. About half of the nation's homeless youth have not finished high school, according to a 2014 report by the National Network for Youth.

The Department of Education has hired more than 30 social workers to be stationed in schools with high proportions of homeless students, and buses now pick up kindergartners through sixth-graders at homeless shelters, Levine said.

Bolstered efforts to identify homeless students may have contributed to higher counts, Levine said. The city also offers seats in pre-kindergarten classes to every child living in a shelter, the Department of Homeless Services said.

"We think that these are very positive steps," Levine told Patch. "We think these numbers show the need for further action."

Mayor Bill de Blasio launched a plan in February to stem the tide of homelessness, which has become a flashpoint for criticism from community activists and political opponents. The city plans to build 90 new homeless shelters across the five boroughs, allowing it to stop using so-called "cluster" shelters and expensive commercial hotels to house the homeless.

That plan aims to keep homeless people close to their home neighborhoods, meaning homeless kids can stay in their local schools, the city says. The DOE also has more than 100 staffers in shelters to help families get the school resources they need.

The homeless services and education departments "remain focused on addressing the unique needs of students in temporary housing, which is why we’ve worked together to expand dedicated staffing and programming" and "established a real-time data feed between the agencies to most effectively provide support to families on the verge of and experiencing homelessness," de Blasio spokeswoman Jaclyn Rothenberg told Patch in a statement.

But there's still more the city can do, Levine said, such as hiring more social workers and placing some in shelters to directly aid families. About 150 schools where more than 10 percent of students are homeless still lack social workers, she said.

"The city should ensure that there’s high level leadership on this issue, should expand the number of DOE social workers for these students and should devote additional resources to the challenges faced by the rising number of students who are homeless," Levine said.

The City Council's education committee will hold a hearing Wednesday on three bills relating to services for homeless students, including one that would station education staffers at the intake center where families apply to get into shelters.

(Lead image by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)