OPINION: For homeless children, ‘back to school’ brings fresh challenges
Across New York City, 1.1 million children are anxious for their first day of school. Many are thinking about who their new teachers will be, which other kids will be in their class, what they will wear on that first morning, and how much homework they will face.
For the thousands of school-aged children who are homeless, the first day of school brings a whole different level of anxiety. Those forced to live in homeless shelters, doubled up or even in hotels, face substantial barriers to a good education that can impact their future potential.
At any given time, there are more than 22,000 children living in homeless shelters in New York City. Estimates suggest that one in seven of our public school students will have experienced homelessness at least once before reaching fifth grade.