Children in NYC schools walk the halls, hoping to get the best education the city has to offer.
Photo via Getty Images
The city’s housing crisis continued its toll on the most vulnerable New Yorkers, homeless children, according to a new report released Monday by the education nonprofit, Advocates for Children of New York (AFC).
The report found that for the 2024-2025 school year, the city’s over 150,000 students who identified as homeless had higher rates of chronic absenteeism, frequent school transfers and poorer outcomes on standardized testing, according to the AFC report, which based its findings on publicly available data.
Jenifer Pringle, a director at the AFC, told amNewYork that students navigating housing insecurity in NYC faced an uphill battle compared to their peers.
“ If you could just imagine not only have you lost your housing, but for many students and families, they’re facing a very long commute if they want to stay connected to their same school,” Pringle said.
NYC homeless students lost 1.1 million days of instruction
Pringle and the report say that the distance exacerbates chronic absenteeism, which impacted almost half of the students in temporary housing and even more residing in shelters, according to the report. These students missed class at least one out of every 10 school days— an amount that added up to a whopping 1.1 million days of lost instruction.
On top of missed classes, Pringle said that the barrier to staying connected to students’ communities often became an insurmountable hurdle, which forced families in temporary housing or shelters to transfer schools mid-year.
“ Now they’ve lost their housing, and they’ve lost that connection to their school community, their teachers, their friends, the same curriculum,” Pringle said. “All of those things are gone, and they have to transfer to a new school, an unfamiliar setting, unfamiliar faces, and for many students that’s very challenging and getting back up to speed academically.”
The report said that 20% of students who are housing insecure transferred schools at least once during the 2024-25 school year, an increase of over four times the number of students with permanent housing.
The emotional and social strife also translated to an academic toll, according to the report, with only 33% of housing-insecure students achieving proficient scores on their English Language
Arts (ELA) exam in 2025 in grades 3-8. Students with permanent housing scored nearly double on the same exams, a disparity that advocates say is unacceptable.
The AFC is calling on the state and city government to form an interagency coalition to address the decade-long increase in the number of students facing housing insecurity, along with the negative outcomes the numbers perpetuate.
Chancellor Samuels vows to make change
NYC Schools Chancellor Kamar H. Samuels appeared to agree Monday, in a statement promising interagency cooperation to solve the Department of Education’s problem.
“Far too often, our students in temporary housing are left behind without the resources and supports they need to succeed – under this administration, we will work to tackle those longstanding issues head on,” Samuels said in a statement. “Towards that end, New York City Public Schools is prioritizing trauma-informed, cross-agency, and data-driven strategies to address chronic absenteeism and boost educational outcomes for students in temporary housing. This work will include a robust network of interagency partnerships to support our most vulnerable students.”
But the AFC also called on reforms to the state’s funding model, the Foundation Aid formula, which Pringle said does not currently account for students who are unhoused, meaning that districts do not receive additional funding for students in temporary housing, according to Pringle.
City Hall spokesperson Jenna Lyle told amNewYork that the Mamdani administration will support solutions to the education gap.
“When a student is homeless or in temporary housing, that instability follows them into the classroom,” Lyle said in a statement. “Without real support, we’re asking them to learn under impossible conditions. Our most vulnerable students deserve a city that shows up for them. That’s why the Mamdani administration is expanding outreach programs we know work, and building real coordination between New York City Public Schools, the Department of Youth and Community Development, and the Department of Homeless Services.”
→ Continue reading at amNY
