The public schools are woefully unprepared to meet the needs of an exploding population of homeless students — and kids are suffering because of it, a new report charges.
Public Advocate Letitia James ripped the city’s services for homeless public school kids in a Wednesday press conference at City Hall unveiling the report.
She argued that schools with highest rates of homeless students — especially in the Bronx and Brooklyn – receive the fewest resources from the city Department of Homeless Services and Education Department.
“It is the responsibility of city government and its agencies to improve the lives of our most vulnerable citizens,” James said.
“We’ve got a crisis in the City of New York with one in ten children in our public school system and a majority of them not receiving any services that they deserve.”
A record 111,562 city students were homeless in the 2016-17 school year, representing about 10% of the roughly 1.1 million students enrolled in city schools.
More than 65% of students in shelters were either chronically absent or severely chronically absent, missing up to 20% of the 2013-14 school year, James said.
James’ analysis also found that the Bronx has the most homeless students of any borough, yet has just two content specialist staffers tasked with helping those kids.
Likewise, James found that Brooklyn, the most populous borough, has only two Borough Field Support Centers for homeless kids, one of which has only one content specialist.
She called on the city to hire more social workers, send more funding to schools with high rates of homeless students and better track students in temporary housing.
Mayor de Blasio spokeswoman Jaclyn Rothenberg said the city has already deployed additional resources targeted at homeless families and students.
“To get kids to school and families back on their feet we’ve expanded social work staffing and improved school busing, while transforming the shelter system to keep kids closer to their home neighborhoods,” Rothenberg said.
