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.