Foreclosure and Kids: Does Losing Your Home Mean Losing Your School? (2011)

Vicki Been, Ingrid Gould Ellen, Amy Ellen Schwartz, Leanna Stiefel, Meryle Weinstein
IESP & the Furman Center

The recent foreclosure crisis has plagued nearly every city in the U.S., including New York City. Despite considerable attention to the causes of these mortgage foreclosures and the consequences they have had for communities, we know little about their impacts on individual families and children. This policy brief examines the prevalence of foreclosure among buildings housing New York City public school students and explores the relationship between foreclosures and student mobility. Specifically, the authors examine whether children who live in properties entering foreclosure are more likely than their peers to switch schools. This brief also explores how the new schools the children attend after moving differ from their origin schools, in terms of student demographics and performance. Key findings include that public school students living in buildings in foreclosure were more likely to change schools in the year following a foreclosure notice than other students, and the effect was amplified for children in multi-family buildings.

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