News & Media

11.01.2023 | Data released today by Advocates for Children of New York (AFC) show that 119,320 New York City students—roughly one in nine—experienced homelessness during the 2022–23 school year. While the recent increase in the number of immigrant families arriving in New York City has brought greater public attention to the issue, student homelessness is not a new phenomenon: 2022–23 marked the eighth consecutive year in which more than 100,000 public school students were identified as homeless. 

The new data, obtained from the New York State Education Department by AFC, show that, of the more than 119,000 students in temporary housing last year, 40,840 (34%) spent time living in City shelters; more than 72,500 (61%) were “doubled up,” or temporarily sharing the housing of others due to loss of housing or economic hardship; and about 5,900 were living in hotels or motels, unsheltered, or otherwise lacking a regular and adequate nighttime residence. While the number and percentage of students without permanent housing rose across all five boroughs, relative to the 2021–22 school year, the highest rate of student homelessness continued to be in the Bronx, where approximately one in every six students was homeless in 2022–23. Districts 4 (East Harlem) and 23 (Brownsville) also had notable concentrations; in both districts, about one in ten students spent time in shelter last year.

Students who are homeless, and especially those living in shelter, face tremendous obstacles to success in school. For example, in 2021–22 (the most recent year for which data are available), students living in shelter dropped out of high school at more than three times the rate of their permanently housed peers, only 22% of those in grades 3–8 reached proficiency on the State English Language Arts (ELA) exam, and 72% were chronically absent, meaning they missed at least one out of every ten school days.

Yet, services that have been put in place to help support these students are under threat, and the situation is becoming more dire as the supports that do exist are stretched thin. 

Last year, to help resolve barriers to school attendance and improve educational outcomes for students experiencing homelessness, New York City Public Schools (NYCPS) hired 100 Community Coordinators to work on the ground in shelters. These Coordinators have helped students and families in shelter connect with needed educational services and supports, including helping newly arrived immigrant students enroll in school. However, the Coordinators were hired using temporary funds that will run out in less than a year, and the City has put forward no plan for ensuring the continuity of the position.  

“No child in New York City should be homeless, but until we reach that goal, access to a quality education is our best possible tool for ensuring those living in shelter don’t re-enter the system as adults,” said Kim Sweet, AFC’s Executive Director. “Losing the shelter-based Community Coordinators would almost certainly increase the already sky-high rates of chronic absenteeism and make it even more difficult for students in shelter to succeed in school. The City should be increasing shelter-based public school staff to meet the tremendous need—and at the very least needs a plan to sustain these critical positions.”

Meanwhile, more than one hundred new shelters have opened without any new NYCPS staff to support them. To help meet the need, NYCPS is ready to onboard more than a dozen temporary staff using federal funding that can only be used to support students in temporary housing and must be returned to Washington if not used by next October. However, the City has not yet given the approval for these staff to start due to new budgeting and hiring restrictions. 

This holdup is particularly problematic given the City’s new policy of using 28-day hotel placements and limiting shelter stays to 60 days for certain newcomer families, which will cause unnecessary disruption in children’s education—especially with insufficient NYCPS staff to help families navigate their school options and arrange for transportation. 

“While students who move to a new shelter placement have the right to stay in their original school, we know from our experience working with families that this is often a right in name only,” said Jennifer Pringle, director of AFC’s Learners in Temporary Housing project. “Between delays in arranging busing, a shortage of bus drivers, unreasonably long commute times, and other obstacles, parents often feel they have no choice but to uproot their children from schools they love when they move shelters. It’s absurd that the City hasn’t given the green light to onboard staff who are already paid for with time-limited federal funds and who can help support students and families.” 

View the press release as a PDF
View the data on students experiencing homelessness in 2022-2023 [PDF]
Read the brief on educational indicators for students experiencing homelessness 2021-22 [PDF]

10.13.2023 | Today, Kim Sweet, Executive Director of Advocates for Children of New York (AFC), issued the following statement in response to the anticipated announcement that New York City will limit shelter stays to 60 days for newcomer families: 

The City’s reported decision to limit shelter stays to 60 days for newcomer families will be extraordinarily destabilizing for students, families, and school communities. Newcomer families already faced significant delays getting their children enrolled at the start of the school year. Now, just as students are settling into new classrooms in a new country, their families will have to navigate whether to stay in the same school or switch schools closer to the new shelter placement. Either option will likely result in massive disruption to students’ education, whether due to delays in arranging transportation, unworkably long commute times, or being forced to start over yet again with new teachers, new classmates, and a new curriculum. We call on the City to reconsider this destructive policy and put children first, so that all children, including our newest students, have a bright start and bold future.

View statement as a PDF

09.26.2023 | Today, Advocates for Children of New York (AFC) and Morrison & Foerster LLP filed a complaint in federal court against the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) and the New York City Department of Education (DOE) on behalf of a young child, R.A., who was not provided the critical services she was entitled to receive from DOHMH’s Early Intervention program for infants and toddlers with disabilities. When R.A.’s family requested compensatory services to make up for the services that were never provided, DOHMH claimed they had no obligation to provide these services – although they had failed for seven months to deliver the mandated support R.A. needed to make progress – because she had aged out of the program when she turned three years old, and was therefore no longer eligible.

R.A. was originally found eligible for services through the federally mandated Early Intervention program when she was a toddler. R.A. has Autism, has limited communication skills and has significant delays across all areas of development. DOHMH, the city agency that runs the Early Intervention program, agreed that R.A. needed a series of intensive services and created a plan for DOHMH to provide the services in her home. However, over the next seven months, R.A. never received her mandated speech therapy or occupational therapy services and only received a fraction of the behavioral therapy she had a right to receive.

“When our pediatrician told us about the Early Intervention program, we were very eager to get R.A. services,” said her mother. “We thought this program would be exactly what she needed to catch up to other children her age. But the entire process has been a challenge. We tried so many times to get her the services she needed but it didn’t make a difference. Without those services, she fell even more behind.”

The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) establishes a right to services for children with disabilities from birth to 21. In New York City, IDEA services for children from birth to three are provided by DOHMH; IDEA services for children three to 21 are provided by the DOE. When either of these agencies fails to provide mandated services, the law requires that the agency provide “compensatory services” to make up for the education and therapies that the student lost.  However, in R.A.’s case, neither DOHMH nor DOE is accepting responsibility for providing the make-up services, leaving her without a means to acquire the fundamental skills that she needs to learn and progress.

“The finger pointing between DOHMH and DOE is causing further harm to the family, who simply wants the services their daughter needs and is entitled to receive,” said Betty Baez Melo, the Director of AFC’s Early Childhood Education Project. “We know that fewer than half of NYC’s children are getting their Early Intervention services on time. This case is not just about enforcing R.A.’s right to services; it’s about holding DOHMH and the DOE accountable so more young children aren’t left without the services they need and have a right to receive.”

“The DOHMH’s position amounts to saying that if they can just play keep-away with a 2 ½ year old until their third birthday, then their obligations under the statute magically disappear. That’s awful policy, but it’s also bad law. R.A. deserves better, and that’s what this lawsuit aims to provide her,” said Morrison & Foerster LLP Partner Michael B. Miller.

Read the press release as a PDF
View the federal complaint

07.19.2023 | Today, Judge Loretta A. Preska of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued an order in the class action, L.V. v. New York City Department of Education, compelling the New York City Department of Education to change its systems for complying with special education administrative orders. 

Advocates for Children of New York (AFC) and pro bono co-counsel Milbank LLP filed the class action lawsuit in 2003, alleging that, after parents of children with disabilities received favorable orders in special education administrative hearings, the DOE was failing to implement the ordered remedies. The DOE settled the case in 2008, with the lawsuit ending if the DOE implemented most orders within 35 days. The DOE, however, failed to comply for more than a decade, and students continued to wait for ordered relief. 

"Families file hearings only as a last resort, after their child has already been denied the services or school placements they need to learn,” said Kim Sweet, Executive Director of Advocates for Children of New York. “To then wait months or years without ordered services or reimbursements adds insult to injury for students and their families, and in our experience can lead to further harm for the families.” 

At AFC and Milbank’s request, a Special Master was appointed in 2021 to investigate the DOE’s delays in implementation of hearing orders. In March 2022, the Special Master, David Irwin from Thru Consulting, issued his findings on the failures within the DOE’s hearing order implementation systems; the following year, the Special Master issued recommendations on DOE actions necessary for timely implementation of hearing orders. 

Today’s order by Judge Preska incorporates the changes to the DOE’s systems and internal structures that the Special Master recommended, and includes more than 41 required steps that the DOE must take with deadlines ranging from 2 months to a little over a year for the DOE to effect the changes.

Among other changes, the order requires the DOE to create a structure for parents to contact the DOE when their special education administrative hearing orders are not implemented, including a support hotline for order implementation; improve and build DOE technology systems for implementing hearing orders; and recruit and fund new staff to implement hearing orders.

“After enduring the lengthy and burdensome process of a hearing, families rightly expect their child will finally get the services they need—not months of stalling,” said Rebecca Shore, Director of Litigation at Advocates for Children of New York. “We are hopeful that Judge Preska’s order will mean students with disabilities finally receive the services that they need, at the time they are needed."

“AFC and Milbank have fought for decades to fix the Department of Education’s hearing order implementation system, and ultimately, secure vital services for all New York City students with disabilities,” said Jasper Perkins of Milbank LLP. “We cannot unwind decades of systemic failure, but we hope that the changes recommended by the special master’s report—and compelled by the court—will ensure no families endure the same neglect in the future.”

Read the press release as a PDF