Almost 112,000 homeless students in NYC: report

There were approximately 111,600 homeless students attending district and charter schools in New York City during the 2019-20 school year, according to a new report. The number of students facing homelessness was particularly high in the Bronx, where one in six students was homeless. 

This represents a decline of about 2% from the previous school year, in which 114,085 homeless students attended city public schools. But Advocates for Children, the advocacy group that compiled the report, warned that the number could be even higher because school closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have likely hurt schools’ abilities to identify youth experiencing homelessness.

“If these children comprised their own city, it would be larger than Albany, and their numbers may skyrocket even further after the state eviction moratorium is lifted,” Kim Sweet, executive director of the organization, said in a statement. 

The shift to remote learning amid the pandemic has been especially difficult on homeless students in the city. In addition to lacking needed devices, students often stay in shelters without WiFi access and in dead zones, which makes it difficult for some students to use cellular plans to connect to classes. The city has planned to bring WiFi to 27 shelters with some of the worst connectivity issues this winter but most family shelters won’t get connected until the summer. A group of homeless families recently filed a lawsuit against the city over its WiFi installation plans, with the goal of pushing officials to provide WiFi at family shelters no later than Jan. 4, 2021.