The Legal Aid Society filed this class action lawsuit on behalf of the Coalition for the Homeless and New York City shelter residents with school-age children to challenge the City’s failure to provide students living in shelters access to reliable internet service so that they could attend school remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, we secured a settlement that required the City to install wireless internet in more than 200 shelters that house in excess of 11,000 school-aged children.

Our complaint alleged violations of State and federal law, to wit: the Education Article of the New York State Constitution, Section 3209 of the New York State Education Law, the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, and the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution. We successfully defeated the City’s challenge to our motion for a preliminary injunction, resulting in favorable legal precedent concerning educational access for homeless children under the New York State Education Law. Learn more about the settlement here.