More than 154,000 New York City public school students were homeless for a period during the last school year, according to a new report from the nonprofit for Advocates for Children of New York.

It is a record high for a number that has been climbing for a decade. The report is based on state data.

“Every year for the past decade, more than 100,000 students in our public schools have been homeless; there are now more students who are homeless in NYC than the entire Dallas public school system,” said Jennifer Pringle, Director of AFC’s Learners in Temporary Housing Project.

She said nearly 1 in 7 of the school system’s more than 900,000 students was homeless at some point last year. Homelessness causes major disruptions to children’s education as their family life is thrown into chaos, she said.

“This year alone, we’ve worked with families whose children already missed an entire month of school because of the lack of coordination between the shelter and school systems,” Pringle said.

The new tally underscores the urgency of the affordability crisis, which has taken center stage in this year’s mayor’s race. Pringle said skyrocketing rents, an increase in domestic violence, and the arrivals of tens of thousands of migrant families fleeing violence in recent years have all played a role in driving up the numbers.

The city offers a wide array of support for homeless students, including staff dedicated to helping with enrollment, transportation, immunization, and counseling, said Chyann Tull, a spokesperson for the city’s education department. Some schools have installed washing machines to help families keep children’s clothes clean, host food pantries and donation hubs.

“We share Advocates for Children’s commitment to supporting our students, and will always provide every student – including those in temporary housing – with the resources they need to succeed in school, while working with our partners to remove any barriers to learning,” Tull said.

Even with the support, homeless students still struggle to get to school and succeed in the classroom.

Celina Moore moved with her three children from the Bronx, where she was living with her mother, to a shelter in Brooklyn because of safety concerns a year ago.

She said for months she tried to keep her 7-year-old son, who is autistic and nonverbal, in his school in the Bronx. But she said the move combined with the long school bus ride from Brooklyn to the Bronx seemed to destabilize him and his teachers started calling about aggression and behavioral problems. “It broke my heart,” she said. “I don’t want my baby suffering.”

She moved him to a school closer in Brooklyn for this school year. But he missed the first week while the school system figured out a new route.

Under federal law, homeless students are allowed to remain in their schools even if they switch shelters. They are also entitled to bus service to transport them to and from their new residence. But Pringle said 40% of homeless students are placed in shelters in a different borough than where they go to school. She said it can take weeks for students to be put on a new bus route and commutes are long, with buses too often running late, or failing to show up at all.

“In the meantime, parents have to be shuttling their kids back-and-forth to school, losing precious time that could be spent looking for permanent housing or working,” Pringle said. “Parents shouldn’t have to choose between school stability for their kids and finding permanent housing.”

More than half of all students in temporary housing are chronically absent. Homeless students tend to fall far behind their peers academically. According to the new data, only 22% of students in shelter scored proficient in state tests in reading and math, half as many as their peers with consistent housing.

The report calls for a more cohesive, unified response from the city government, and more funding from the state, to support homeless students.

“This is an interagency issue,” Pringle said. “And we think that the next mayor should launch a bold interagency initiative to tackle educational barriers for students experiencing homelessness.”