Relates to improving educational outcomes for homeless students

BILL NUMBER:S5036

Title of bill

An act to amend the education law, in relation to improving educational outcomes for homeless students

Purpose

To require the data on educational outcomes of homeless students available to the governor and the legislature

SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:.

Section 1 Subdivision 7 of section 3209 of the education law is renumbered subdivision 9 and new subdivisions 7 and 8 are added as follows:

7. a. The Commissioner shall submit to the governor and the legislature a report including, but not limited to: (a) the number of identified homeless students enrolled in public schools; (2) the academic performance and educational outcomes of homeless students, including but not limited to (i) student scores on the statewide administered academic assessments; (ii) English language proficiency; (iii) dropout rates; (iv) four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate.

b. The data must include state and district-level information and must be disaggregated by race, low income, gender, etc.

8. The Commissioner, in collaboration with experts from community organizations on homelessness and homeless education policy, shall develop a homeless education policy.

Section 2 is the enacting clause.

Justification

According to the New York Times article on February 21, 2014, the State Education Department reported that more than 80,000 school-age children in New York City were identified as homeless during the last academic year. While the homeless student population has grown since the financial crisis in 2008, homeless students often have difficulty accessing education and staying in school. A study found that only one-third of homeless students read at a grade level compared to more than half of their same-aged peers (Rescorla et al., 1991), Nationally, one-fifth of homeless children repeat a grade in school, and sixteen percent are enrolled in special education classes (Institute for Children and Poverty, 2001).

While identifying homeless students is important, their educational outcomes have to be evaluated in order to increase understanding about their educational barriers. This legislation would allow data collection on the academic performance and educational outcomes of homeless students, including but not limited to: test scores on the statewide administered academic assessments; dropout rates; four-year graduation rate; five-year graduation rate; suspension and expulsion data. The data must include state and district-level information and must be disaggregated by ethnicity, income level, gender, special education, etc. This legislation would also require the Commissioner of the State Education Department to develop homeless education policy in collaboration with experts from non-for-profit organization on how to better provide support services to homeless students and on how to utilize Title I funding to achieve desirable outcomes.

Fiscal implications

Undetermined

Effective date

This act shall take effect immediately.