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Majority Of Homeless Students Live In East Ramapo School District
According to the most recent data available for school year 2022-2023, Rockland County had 1,934 homeless students enrolled in public schools. According to a report from Hudson Valley Pattern For Progress, this represents a 465 percent increase from 2009 to 2023.
Of the nine counties covered by the Pattern For Progress report, only Westchester had more homeless students with 2,147, followed by Orange County with 1603. Overall, the nine counties tallied 7,139 homeless students, including students living in hotels, motels, parks, campgrounds, temporary trailers and abandoned buildings.
The report, titled “When Hotels Become Home” examined the impacts of homelessness on students, their families, the school districts and county and state budgets. Under the federal McKinney-Vento Act, children in temporary housing have the right to transportation at the school district’s expense to their “school of origin” if they are sheltered 50 or fewer miles from their school district, even across school district or county lines.
The school districts are eligible for reimbursement of most transportation costs from Counties, and the State and Federal Government.
According to Pattern For Progress, “school officials in the Hudson Valley said an increasing number of homeless school students are riding on buses and vans for more than one hour to get from their temporary homes to school.”
The number of homeless students in New York and the Hudson Valley has steadily risen over the past 15 years. Since 2009, the number of homeless students in the State of New York has risen from 86,715 to 155,147, despite a total public-school population that has dropped by about 280,000 total students. About 3.2% of all students in New York fit the definition of homeless in 2009, but that proportion doubled to 6.4% in the 2022-2023 school year.
By guaranteeing that students remain in the same school, the law provides a modicum of stability for students who are otherwise distressed from losing their homes, living in hotels, or moving from place to place every few weeks. Experts say that educational and social-emotional outcomes are improved when homeless students remain with the same teachers, staff, and friends.
Students also have the right under state and federal law to:
- Enroll in school without records (school records, medical records, vaccination records, proof of residency);
- Receive special education services immediately if the student has a current individualized Education Program (IEP);
- Participate fully in any school activities, including before- or after-school activities;
- Receive support services and help with things like school supplies through Title I;
- Receive free school meals without filling out an application;
- Receive help enrolling in pre-k, Head Start, or other preschool programs, and Early Intervention; and
- Receive help preparing and applying for college.
Here is Rockland County, the majority of homeless students,1,739 or the 1,934, are enrolled in the East Ramapo School District.
The data was compiled by The New York State Technical and Educational Assistance Center for Homeless Students, an agency funded by the New York State Education Department that provides information, referrals, and trainings to schools, school districts, social service providers, parents, and others about the educational rights of children and youth experiencing homelessness.
From 2009-2023, the number of children in public and charter schools in the Hudson Valley declined by 36,859 while homelessness in the student population grew by 2,736 students.
According to Pattern For Progress, the lack of affordable housing opportunities, increased evictions post-pandemic, rising rents, and the lack of new housing units all contribute to and exacerbate the problem.
