Dear Commons Community,

A new report released yesterday by the Institute for Children, Poverty, and Homelessness, concludes that one in every seven New York City public school students will be homeless at some point during elementary school. 

“In every school classroom, that’s two or three kids,” said Anna Shaw-Amoah, principal policy analyst at the institute. “And the challenges are not just about whether you’re currently living in a shelter or a doubled up setting, but did they have that experience last year, or did they have this experience in kindergarten? The instability really travels with students. If you fall behind in one year, it’s going to be harder to get on grade level the next year.”

Within the last six years, more than 140,000 New York City students have been homeless, the report said.

The growing number of homeless children is part of the fallout of the city’s housing crisis, which has seen a growing number of families in city shelters, as rents have risen, federal and state aid has dwindled, and a state rental assistance program ended. The de Blasio administration has struggled to slow the rising numbers, but with little success.

Below is an Executive Summary of the Report.

Tony

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On the Map: The Atlas of Student Homelessness in New York City 2017

Executive Summary

Education provides the best chance for children to break the cycle of poverty and homelessness. Not only is academic achievement crucial for life outcomes, but the social and emotional development that happens in school is vital as well. The connections created in the classroom are even more critical for any child who has experienced housing instability and homelessness.

More than 140,000 children attending New York City public schools have experienced homelessness within the past six years. Together, these children would form a city larger than White Plains and New Rochelle combined, with roughly the same population size as Syracuse, New York. Given the prevalence of homelessness among school-age students, educators and policymakers need to understand the educational challenges that students experiencing homelessness face, and the opportunities that exist to help students in temporary housing succeed.

Homelessness is more than a lack of housing. For the more than 140,000 students in New York City who have been homeless, the impact of housing instability is all too real. These children are not only struggling with maintaining a place to sleep, but also attending school, succeeding academically, and accessing supports for their additional educational and behavioral needs. Improving student achievement for homeless and formerly homeless students is not as simple as addressing a student’s housing, but knowing more about homeless students’ experiences in school is an important step to addressing their unique support needs.

The 2017 Atlas of Student Homelessness in New York City builds on the 2016 Atlas of Student Homelessness, providing a more in-depth look at the educational outcomes of homeless students. Using a six-year cohort of elementary students, this publication highlights the educational risks faced by the one in seven children who will experience housing instability by the end of elementary school if current trends do not change. This publication also reveals the different educational risks faced by students living in shelters compared to those living doubled up or in other temporary situations, as well as outcomes of formerly homeless students, who experience continued instability in the classroom.

What’s New?

• The number of homeless students in NYC public schools increased by almost 33,000 students—a 50 percent jump— in six years.
• If current trends continue, more than one out of seven NYC public school students will experience homelessness at least once by the time they reach fifth grade.
• Despite improvement in academic outcomes between SY 2010–11 and SY 2015–16, gaps by housing status and type of homelessness persist. Students in shelter achieve proficiency on 3rd–8th grade math State assessments at just half the rate of homeless students living doubled up.
• Even after moving into stable housing, students with a history of homelessness experience lasting effects of instability, with 1.5 times the chronic absenteeism and mid-year transfer rates of their low-income peers who had always been housed.

Policy Considerations

• The way that available data are used must change in order to effectively improve educational outcomes for homeless students. Schools, service providers, policymakers, and elected officials need to look at the type of homelessness students experience, since gaps between sheltered and other homeless students are persistent.
• Additional supports in schools like IEP and ELL programs must take students’ housing status into consideration when delivering services. Students who have been homeless are more likely to need additional educational and language learning supports, but are less likely to receive those supports in a timely and effective manner. IEP and ELL programs must consider the unstable housing situations that many students are facing and the unique challenges placed on their attendance and school stability.
• It is critical to recognize that the effects of homelessness last beyond the experience itself. Available data that show whether students have a history of homelessness should be made more accessible to teachers and administrators, and can help ensure that supports exist both for students who are currently living in unstable housing as well as those who have been homeless in the past.
• A student’s record of homelessness is only captured roughly once per year. This fails to account for students who experienced homelessness later in the year, and also does not provide a full picture of the students’ history of homelessness to teachers and school administrators.

Key Citywide Findings

• The number of homeless students in NYC public schools jumped by 20% in just one year, reaching close to 100,000 in SY 2015–16.
• An average of nine percent of New York City public school students were homeless in one year (SY 2015–16).
• In addition to the nine percent of students homeless in SY 2015–16, another four percent were currently housed but had experienced homelessness at some point since SY 2010–11 (formerly homeless).
• The City has succeeded in increasing pre-K enrollment among homeless children, with a 17% increase from SY 2014–15 to SY 2015–16.
• On average, 6.6% of students in New York City charter schools were homeless in SY 2015–16—three points lower than the rate of students experiencing homelessness in public schools (9.3%).
• Students who had a history of homelessness but were housed in SY 2015–16 (formerly homeless) were still facing instability at school. Almost a third were chronically absent and 13% transferred schools mid-year compared to 19% and 7% among housed students citywide.
• Absenteeism places students at risk of not only falling behind academically, but also having their additional support needs be identified later. Homeless students who were absent 40 or more days in Kindergarten had a 12-point higher rate of late IEP identification compared to their homeless peers with 0–4 absences.
• One in every six English Language Learner (ELL) students was homeless in SY 2015–16. The majority (82%) of homeless students with ELL needs were living doubled up.
• Homeless students were not only more likely to have ELL needs, but they were also more likely to be designated as ELL for longer than their housed peers who were both low income and not low income. More than 40% of homeless ELL students still had ELL needs after six years compared to one-third of low-income housed students and only 4% of non-low-income housed students.
• Amidst citywide policy and curricula changes over time, achievement gaps by housing status persisted. Homeless students scored proficient at roughly half the rate of housed students overall on State English Language Arts (ELA) assessments (21% to 40% in SY 2015–16).
• Middle school proficiency is a strong predictor of dropping out of high school: overall, 16.5% of those who were not proficient ended up dropping out compared to 3.6% of students who did score proficient. For homeless students, this is an even stronger predictor. One in four (24.5%) homeless students who did not score proficient in middle school dropped out of high school.