NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — The number of homeless children in the New York City school system increased over the course of the last school year even as enrollment dropped at public schools, data released on Wednesday by the non-profit Advocates for Children.
About 104,000 students in New York City public schools were homeless in the 2020 to 2021 school year, a 3.3% increase from the previous year.
This increase ran counter to the trend in enrollment, which dropped by 3.2% from the previous year, according to AFC.
There are about 1 million students enrolled in New York City public schools, according to the Department of Education. That means more than 10% of students are homeless.
This is the seventh consecutive year in which more than 100,000 students are homeless, the AFC told the New York Daily News.
Mayor Eric Adams had promised to hire 100 shelter-based Department of Education community coordinators earlier this year who could help homeless students succeed, but Jennifer Pringle, the director of AFC’s Learners in Temporary Housing Project, told the Daily News those positions have not yet been filled.
A DOE spokesperson told the publication the city had started the hiring process, but would not say when the staff would start working.
City Hall said an estimated 6,100 children who are migrants entered the New York City school system in the 2022-2023 school year — many of them newly arrived on buses sent from Texas by Gov. Greg Abbott as part of a feud with Adams.
Most of the migrant families had no support network when they arrived in New York, and are now homeless.
Related
Related
