Syracuse, NY – Two in five students in Syracuse city schools live in poverty, according to data recently released by the United States Census Bureau.

The Syracuse City School District ranked fourth in poverty among the state’s 680 school districts, according to the Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates program, which offers annual income and poverty statistics for more than 13,000 school districts nationwide. About 40% of Syracuse students were living in poverty in 2020.

Nearby suburban school districts have shown much lower poverty rates. Only about 4% of students in Fayetteville-Manlius and less than 13% of students in East Syracuse-Minoa, North Syracuse, and Jamesville-DeWitt schools were living in poverty in 2020.

Rochester’s school poverty rate was slightly worse than in Syracuse, with about 43% of students in poverty; Binghamton was about the same, at 39.5%; and Buffalo does better with just under a third of its students living in poverty.

Syracuse has ranked among New York’s 10 poorest school districts for the past 10 years, with an average of around 40% of students living in poverty during that time.

The U.S. Department of Education will use these statistics to allocate federal funding to schools during the 2022-2023 school year, according to the Census Bureau.

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