BEDFORD-STUYVESANT — Central Brooklyn’s education council is slated to meet with Department of Education officials on Tuesday to discuss available services for homeless students in Bed-Stuy and northern Crown Heights.
Following a recent study that showed Bed-Stuy’s School District 16 had the greatest percentage of homeless students in the borough, the community education council announced it would host an open Q&A session to address the issue.
“This is a crisis that we really need to take a look at,” said CEC 16 President NeQuan McLean.
“What we can we do as parents and community leaders to support families is make sure they know where they can get services from and make sure this community is being provided for.”
An August report from the Institute for Children, Poverty & Homelessness found that District 16 had a homeless student population of 15.2 percent during the 2014-2015 academic year.
One out of five kids experienced homelessness in the last five years, the study showed.
The Oct. 18 meeting at P.S. 5 on Hancock Street will give parents the chance to ask questions regarding resources for kids in temporary housing — meaning those who reside in the city’s homeless shelters, doubled up with other families, or live in hotels, motels or other transitional housing situations.
“One of the things that we’ve noticed is that a lot of our schools have suffered with their test grades. Kids are testing but a lot are either in transitional homes or temporary housing, shuffling in the middle of the year,” McLean said.
“Some haven’t even been in the school for a long time and we don’t know what situation they’re coming from.”
Other instances involve children traveling long distances to attend class, he said.
McLean has experienced the struggle first-hand, he added, having relatives living in a shelter.
A report released in October by the city’s Independent Budget Office found that homeless students have lower attendance rates due to several factors, such as families relocating and difficulties in new travel arrangements.
Children are also affected by the instability of stressful living conditions, the study found. Basic needs such as doing the laundry while living in shelters can impact a student’s attendance if they are without clean clothes.
“This is just the first step in a long process of getting to the bottom of who is responsible for providing for these students,” McLean said of Tuesday’s meeting.
The city’s Students in Temporary Housing Unit has “Content Experts” in each borough to provide assistance and work directly with schools, along with additional staff members who monitor attendance and help families with transportation, among other responsibilities, according to the DOE.
Wayne Harris, an STH Content Expert, will be a guest speaker at the upcoming meeting, according to the CEC, along with a representative from the Institute for Children, Poverty & Homelessness.
The DOE is hiring attendance teachers to work directly in shelters, adding social workers to schools and using $30 million in funding for programming and services for students in temporary housing, according to the agency.
“We are working across city agencies to implement these critical programs and provide support to families to ensure students living in temporary housing receive an equitable and excellent education,” DOE spokeswoman Toya Holness said in a statement.
Following Tuesday’s meeting, the CEC will work with local stakeholders, officials and organizations to “figure out a plan of action,” McLean added.
The Community Education Council for District 16 will host an informational meeting on services for students in temporary housing on Tuesday, Oct. 18, at 6:30 p.m. The discussion will be held at P.S. 5, 820 Hancock St. near Ralph Avenue.
The council will be collecting questions from parents prior to the meeting. For more information visit the council’s website here.
