Homeless students struggle with school shutdowns

Last week’s shutdown of New York City’s public schools disrupted life for hundreds of thousands of students and parents. For some, though, it signifies an even more painful gut punch: a loss of family.

In an iconic brick schoolhouse on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, about 450 children usually find refuge from an astonishing array of storms. Nearly half the school’s students live in homeless shelters or other temporary housing; nearly all of them are poor. Many are veterans of the foster care system or survivors of domestic violence.