Homelessness and School Attendance: Two Closely Related Challenges for New York City Children

By Paul Bennett 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Few would argue with the fact that students who aren’t often absent from school do better in class and receive higher grades than those who are frequently or chronically absent. Good report cards tend to be (though may not always be) an indicator of future success. At the very least they mean students are ready to progress to and succeed in the next grade, and ultimately to graduate and thrive in college or in a career. No parent wants their child to be absent too frequently.

Yet homeless children, faced with myriad challenges in their personal lives, often miss a great deal of school, and it causes problems that are difficult to solve.

Data from the Advocates for Children of New York points to the severity of the problem:

• Nearly half of all students in temporary housing, and 63 percent of students in shelter, were chronically absent last year, meaning they missed at least one out of every ten school days. At minimum, such rates of absenteeism represent a combined 1.1 million days of lost instructional time.
• One in every five students in shelters transferred schools at least once during the 2024–25 school year, more than four times the transfer rate of permanently housed students. The 12,000 students in shelter who changed schools mid-year not only lost a permanent place to call home, they also lost the stability of a familiar school environment and had to adjust to new teachers, peers, curricula, and routines, often with little advance warning.
• Only 33 percent of students who were homeless scored proficient on the grades 3–8 English Language Arts (ELA) exam in 2025, compared to 60 percent of their permanently housed peers—a disparity even larger than the one seen in 2024.

Absenteeism isn’t the only problem the approximately 154,000 homeless children in New York City face. They are also forced to switch schools frequently, following their parents across the city’s shelter system.
According to City and State New York, “School stability is often a luxury for these children. Facing long commutes and uncertain living conditions, more than 1 in 8 students in temporary housing and 1 in 5 in shelters transferred schools at least once last school year. This was the case for about 1 in 24 of their permanently housed peers. And the disproportionate challenges homeless students face translate directly to test scores. Just 27 percent of third through eighth graders living in shelters scored proficient on the New York State English Language Arts and math exams in 2025, a modest bump from the year prior, yet still well below the 60 percent of their peers.”

It’s worth noting that the phenomenon of children changing schools, known as “mobility,” also has a negative effect on schools. According to an NYU study, “For schools, high student turnover can undermine efforts to build a cohesive and supportive community. The negative consequences of mobility have been a persistent concern among educators and researchers alike.”

There is little good data on how mobility affects children across the three phases of education in New York City—elementary school, middle school, and high school. A report from 2019 by the Institute for Children, Poverty, and Homelessness breaks it down. The data here is a decade old (and excludes charter and other alternative schools).

Given that the city's homeless student population has grown roughly 45–50 percent since then and shelter placement patterns have shifted (more families in hotels, a different mix of shelter vs. doubled-up), the current rates are very likely different in magnitude, though probably similar in the general pattern: elementary hit hardest, high school somewhat less so. Ultimately, homeless students are about two or three times more likely to transfer schools in the middle of the year than their housed peers.

Federal and New York City lawmakers have taken steps to grapple with this challenge. The federal McKinney-Vento Act gives homeless students the right to stay at their "school of origin" (the school they attended before becoming homeless) with transportation provided, even if they move to a shelter in a different area. New York adds further protections. Students in temporary housing are entitled to transportation to the school they attended when they were last permanently housed, up to 50 miles each way, or to the most recent school they attended, even if it's in a different district. If they move into permanent housing, they can keep that same transportation for the rest of the school year, plus an extra year if it's their final year in a school building.

New York City officials are calling for more shelters closer to schools, and have urged Mayor Mamdani and Governor Hochul to help make this happen. According to the Citizens Committee for Children, “While both federal and state law require the City to provide transportation to students in foster care so they can remain in their original schools, the DOE currently does not guarantee any form of transportation to these students. This is causing deeply harmful disruptions for students in foster care, including forcing them to transfer schools or foster homes to access an education.” Advocates have called on the City Council to take action to change this.

Chalkbeat says that “Many students in shelters routinely face long commutes, transportation delays, and frequent moves during the school year, pushing them further behind academically, families and advocates say. In city government, advocates say there’s far too little coordination between the various agencies—including the Education and Social Services departments—that have a role in overseeing homeless students, creating unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles for families.”

Perhaps the Mamdani administration, still in its early days, will be able to change all that.

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Mentor A Promise is a nonprofit organization helping NYC youths and families break the cycle of homelessness by illuminating paths to education and success. We seek to ensure that every student, regardless of circumstance, is seen, supported, and empowered to realize their full potential. Learn more at www.mentorapromise.org.