The Project

Approximately 36,000 New York City school children reside in homeless shelter each school year. The NYC Department of Education’s Office of Students in Temporary Housing (OSTH) supports these students and their families by assisting them with school enrollment, transportation, educating families on their rights under the McKinney-Vento Act, supporting attendance, facilitating programs, and more.

With DOE leaders and OSTH field staff, we researched current service provision for homeless students and identified opportunities to improve business processes and service delivery.

The Outcome

PPL provided a set of policy and service recommendations to OSTH around increased coordination with other city agencies, data and technology advancements, and organizational roles. Our work informed a restructuring of the office, and our collaboration continues through two projects: one focused on improving transportation for homeless students and the other to better align city services for these students and their families.