From Hopeful to Homeless: BK High Schooler Has No Home or Diploma

A Brooklyn high school senior's graduation dreams were dashed when she and her family were evicted from their home and forced to seek solace in a homeless shelter.

The New York Daily News reported that Rosa Bracero was forced to miss the English New York State Regents exam last week because she and her family were evicted on the same day she was scheduled to take the test.

A homeless shelter employee told Bracero that she and her family would be denied re-entry if she didn't stay there to be processed for seven hours, prompting her to miss the 1:15 p.m. exam. A spokesman for the Homeless Services Department told the News that the shelter followed protocol in requiring the entire family to be present for the evaluation.

"I'm homeless so I have to be set back in my goals for my life?" a distraught Bracero told the paper. "Isn't it enough that I'm homeless?"

Although the High School for Civil Rights in Brooklyn allowed the 17-year-old student to take the exam on Friday, state officials deemed the results invalid because they do not allow makeups for concern of cheating.

Bracero was supposed to graduate this week, having completed her high school requirements in three and a half years, in an effort to jumpstart her career as a car technician.

The Education Department said she will get the chance to take the exam in June, but for Bracero, who wanted to graduate and get a job to help her family, that's not soon enough.

"I'm tired of being without a home," Bracero, who wants to be an automobile tech and already was accepted into the Lincoln Technical Institute, told the News. "I love learning ... but I want to further my education so I can get a job. I want to help take care of my family."

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