Gothamist – Child advocacy groups are joining the New York City Council to urge the Adams administration to restore funding for a two-year-old program that helps thousands of students living in shelters navigate the school system.

The nonprofit Advocates for Children released a brief on Thursday highlighting how shelter-based coordinators are boosting school attendance rates, keeping homeless students on track for graduation and ensuring eligible students are properly enrolled in special education programs.

The push for more funding comes as 40,800 students spent time in homeless shelters in the last school year — a nearly 40% jump from the previous year, according to data provided by Advocates for Children. Mayor Eric Adams has proposed slashing the 100 shelter coordinator positions even as 14,500 migrant families with children are living in city shelters and enrolling in the school system for the first time, and often doing so in a new language.

The proposed cuts are “just bananas given just how many students are in shelter right now [and] the fact that you have 100 new shelters that have opened,” said Jennifer Pringle, project director for Advocates for Children. “They are needed now more than ever.”