With the number of homeless families surging to record numbers, the city is struggling to get thousands of children from the shelters to school every day, and a new report says many children are falling through the cracks. NY1's Lindsey Christ filed the following report.

A staggering 1 in 13 city students - 81,400 to be exact - were homeless in the last school year, shuffled from shelter to shelter or from a relative's couch to another family's home, often far away from their neighborhoods and schools. 

A new report by the city's Independent Budget Office details their hardships, and how it affects their ability to attend school and learn.

"The logistics of the distance between the home,or the shelter and school, the fact that these families move around a lot, create difficulties," said Ray Domanico of the Independent Budget Office.

The report found one-third of students living in shelters missed 40 or more days of school. Another third missed at least 20 days.  

Problems begin from the moment a family is homeless. To enter a city shelter, every family member must be present at the intake center in the Bronx. 

"Obviously, the children are not going to school while they're waiting at the placement center," Domanico said.

The city is supposed to place families in the same borough as the youngest child's school, but half of homeless families were placed elsewhere in the 2013-14 school year.  

Parents must then choose: navigate long commutes, or transfer children to new schools.  

"Parents have described this to us as no choice at all," Domanico said.

Many schools near shelters are overwhelmed with homeless students. At PS 15 on the Lower East Side, half the students are homeless. Many have been bouncing around between various schools around for years. 

The de Blasio administration says it's spending $30 million on initiatives like hiring social workers at schools with many homeless children and putting staff in shelters to help kids get to school. But the city's funding formula doesn't allocate schools any additional money if they serve homeless children.

"It's just now becoming something that people are realizing really does require a lot of resources and a lot of supports," said Irene Sanchez, principal at PS 15.

The need is clear. Educators say homelessness throws enormous obstacles in the way of students trying to succeed. 

"We had a student come in this year in one of the upper grades and came in at a first-grade reading level after being at about five different schools," Sanchez said.