NEW YORK — After years of advocacy, New York lawmakers are changing the state’s primary school aid formula to drive much-needed resources to the city’s growing population of homeless students.

The revised formula, known as Foundation Aid, establishes a new weight for students who are homeless or in foster care, according to an education budget bill poised to pass the state legislature Wednesday evening. It also increases an existing weight for English learners.

All in, the changes will steer another $143 million in state resources to the city’s schools. Across the five boroughs, there are more than 150,000 students who lack a permanent place to call home.

“While there is still work to do to improve the Foundation Aid formula, the updates made in this year’s budget help move us closer to an equitable funding system,” the Coalition for Equitable Education Funding, an alliance of more than 120 education advocacy groups, said in a statement.

The budget bill also extends Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s control of the public schools by two years, as the Daily News reported was expected last week. It does not finalize a widely anticipated delay to the 2022 class size reduction law, which Mamdani has been counting on for savings.

State Sen. John Liu, chair of the NYC education committee, confirmed the omission of the class size measure in a news release, but said negotiations are still ongoing. The senator’s spokesperson said he still expects the measure to be approved, either as part of a future budget bill or stand-alone legislation.

For almost two decades, Foundation Aid, which sends additional resources to school districts with disadvantaged students, provided no more dollars for children living in shelters or other forms of temporary housing — despite evidence they need more support in school.

Last year, nearly half of students in temporary housing were considered chronically absent, and only one-third were proficient readers, according to an April brief by Advocates for Children of New York. Many endure long commutes or transfer schools, on top of the trauma of losing their homes.

“All of these factors take a toll on their education,” said Randi Levine, policy director at Advocates for Children and a leader of the equitable funding coalition. “So, we’re very pleased school districts will have additional funding intended to help them better meet the educational needs of students who are homeless.”

Lawmakers set the homeless students weight at 0.12, and increased the weight for English learners from 0.53 to 0.6. In New York City, one in every six public school students is learning English as a new language.

“By extending mayoral control and adding critical Foundation Aid weights to support our most vulnerable students, city and state leaders made clear that students come first,” Mamdani said in a statement. “Chancellor (Kamar) Samuels and I will spend the next two years continuing that work: centering our communities, investing in our public schools and making sure every young New Yorker has the foundation they need to succeed long term.”

“This additional state funding will help the new mayoral administration achieve long-sought goals for New York City schools,” Liu, the state senator, said in a statement.

Samuels and advocates also pushed for an update to the “regional cost index” — part of the formula that accounts for cost differences across the state’s regions — but the reform was left out of this year’s budget. Despite the city’s affordability crisis, the regional cost index has not been updated locally in two decades.

The amendments marked the second time in as many years that state lawmakers have updated the decades-old formula, with last year’s adjustments resulting in $314 million less for city schools than had no reforms been made.

Between Gov. Kathy Hochul’s budget proposal in January, changes to the formula negotiated with the state legislature, and the latest enrollment data, the city’s school system is set to receive nearly $11 billion in Foundation Aid, including an additional $538 million or 5% increase since last year, according to 2026-27 state aid projections.

The budget bill reauthorizes mayoral control until June 30, 2028 with no changes to how the system is governed. Mamdani, who ran for mayor on giving up control of the schools, changed his tune as he took office and pushed for a four-year extension alongside Hochul.

In a statement, Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, who opposed a long-term reauthorization of mayoral control in its current form, said the union would seek changes to the system in the coming years.

“Over the next two years, we will continue to work with Mayor Mamdani and the members of the state legislature to try to find ways to bring more parent and educator voices into policy decisions,” Mulgrew said.

As of late Wednesday afternoon, the legislation had passed the State Assembly, and was being delivered to the State Senate. New York’s next budget — which includes the education bill as well as several others — is now seven weeks late.

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