Task:

The New York City Department of Education sought social impact technologists to help explore new approaches to coordinating over 100,000 annual records of students living in temporary housing. A significant portion of their existing operations relied on manual processes and decentralized data.

Overview:

The NYC Department of Education is the largest school district in the United States, serving more than one million students. Roughly one in ten of those students experience homelessness or are living in temporary housing. The DOE invests $60 million annually in the Students in Temporary Housing (STH) program, supported by more than 350 DOE employees, to help ensure that students facing housing instability have equal access to education and essential resources.

The STH program provides transportation, tutoring, counseling, and school supplies, while STH liaisons work in schools and shelters to help families navigate the education system so that children can continue their schooling without disruption. However, key student data was dispersed across 200 homeless shelters in physical binders, creating delays in connecting students with the resources they needed. This manual, fragmented system made it difficult for the STH team to provide timely support.

Problem:

The existing case management system for the STH program was highly inefficient, relying on paper-based processes and outdated technology. With critical student information scattered across hundreds of shelter locations, staff faced significant barriers to coordinating care and ensuring students received support without delay.

Solution:

With funding from the Deutsche Bank Foundation of America and support from Microsoft technologies, FuseChange developed concepts for SMART (Students Making a Real Transition) — a prototype application designed to modernize case management for the program.

The proposed system aimed to:

1. Eliminate paper-based processes through automation.
2. Integrate data systems across government agencies and social service providers.
3. Support organizational collaboration for more effective resource coordination.
4. Improve tracking and allocation of McKinney-Vento Act funding.
5. Provide an open-source platform accessible to school districts across the country.

Results

FuseChange provided guidance to help the district think through more inclusive and holistic approaches to student support, including:

1. Digital record-keeping to replace paper-based systems.
2. Improved communication and data sharing between the DOE, city departments, and nonprofit partners.
3. Better coordination of social services to ensure more timely support for students.
4. More efficient tracking and use of McKinney-Vento Act funding.