Reports hit record student homelessness
TWO REPORTS published Thursday ripped Mayor de Blasio’s handling of the homelessness crisis in city schools, where a record number of students were living in temporary housing for the school year that ended in June.
An audit published by city Controller Scott Stringer found an amazing 111,562 city students were homeless or living in temporary housing in the 2016-17 school year.
That’s about 10% of the roughly 1.1 million students enrolled in city schools.
The report focused on the 33,000 of those students who were living in shelters for the school year that ended in June 2016.
It found that 59% of those kids were chronically absent — meaning they missed more than 10% of the 2015-16 school year, roughly 18 days of class. Stringer’s audit also found the city didn’t reach out to the families of students who missed class 75% of the time.
Stringer said the city’s inaction left thousands of homeless children at risk.
“These are heartbreaking government failures, because they affect young, vulnerable children,” Stringer said. “The (Department of Education) is failing these kids.”
The Daily News reported earlier this week that the average nightly population in city homeless shelters last December was a record high 63,495.
The city’s true number of homeless students — or students living in temporary housing — is far higher because it includes kids living on the street or doubled-up in the homes of relatives or friends.
Students living in shelters and temporary housing arrangements of all kinds lag behind their peers with permanent homes when it comes to academics.
Just 12% of students living in shelters could do math at grade level in 2016, compared with 38% of students in permanent housing.
And only 15% of students living in shelters could do math at grade level in 2016, compared with 38% of students in permanent housing.
De Blasio said that he hadn’t seen Stringer’s audit but that the city was working to improve the attendance of homeless students and get better support them for in school.
He cited programs to bus homeless kids from their shelters to their schools and efforts to place students in new shelters closer to their schools.
“We also have put into shelters tutors, and attendance officials to help make sure that there’s follow-through to get kids to school,” de Blasio said. “So it’s a real issue, no question, but it’s one we’re trying to address at the root, and one we take seriously.”
But a report published Thursday by the nonprofit Advocates for Children of New York found that the city’s offices to support homeless kids are understaffed.
It called on the city to add at least 107 social workers dedicated to helping homeless students access services and succeed in school.
In 2017 the city dedicated $10.7 million to programs for homeless students, but continued funding was not included in a preliminary budget released by de Blasio last month.