Education officials have allowed many of New York City’s homeless students to miss large swaths of school without required intervention from city personnel, according to a scathing audit issued Thursday by Comptroller Scott Stringer.
The report comes as city officials have struggled to address the growing student homelessness crisis: There were over 111,000 homeless students last year — or roughly one in 10 public school students. And while advocates have pushed for the education department to devote more resources to serving homeless students, Stringer’s audit offers new evidence that they often slip through the cracks.
“In violation of the Department of Education’s regulations, I can say they’re doing almost nothing to follow up with the parents when homeless students are absent,” Stringer told the New York Times, which first reported the audit’s findings. He added in a statement: “This audit shows more than your typical set of agency breakdowns.”
Here are three key findings from the report, which you can read in full here:
1. Students living in shelters sometimes miss an astonishing amount of school.