Demographics , formerly Bayard Rustin High School, now hosts 6 small schools 's 13 acre campus, Dewey is the only public school in New York City to have a 13-acre campus. A bronze statue is also situated on the campus titled "The Key to Knowledge" symbolizing progressive education. In October 2018, 1,126,501 students attended New York City public schools, excluding 119,551 students enrolled in
charter schools. About 40% of students in the city's public school system live in households where a language other than English is spoken; one-third of all New Yorkers were born in another country. The city's Department of Education translates report cards, registration forms, system-wide alerts, and documents on health and policy initiatives for parents into Spanish, French, German, Russian, Chinese, Japanese,
Korean,
Hindi,
Telugu,
Bengali,
Urdu,
Persian, Arabic, and
Haitian Creole. In October 2018, the student population was 42%
Hispanic and Latino, 26% African American, 15%
Non-Hispanic White, and 16% Asian American. Another 3% were of multiple race categories. Of the students, 20% were disabled, 13% were English language learners, and 73% met the department's definition of poverty. New York's Specialized High School Institute is an after-school program for students in late middle school. It was designed to enlarge the pool of African American and Hispanic candidates eligible for admission to the selective schools by giving them extra lessons and teaching test-taking skills. Unlike other urban school districts (such as
San Francisco Unified School District), New York does not use
racial preferences (affirmative action) in public school admissions. In May 2012, the
New York Times reported that New York City had the fifth most
segregated large city school system, after Chicago and
Dallas. Hispanic students are concentrated in
Washington Heights and
Corona and the greatest segregation existed in black neighborhoods. It further noted that black isolation in schools has persisted even as residential segregation has declined. , the
Times said that 11% of the schools in the city system had the majority of non-Hispanic white students, who made up 15% of the system's total student body. In May 2017, the
Times published another report in collaboration with
Measure of America that examined the effects of segregation. According to the report, black and Hispanic students were more likely to attend nonselective schools with majority-black and Hispanic demographics and lower graduation rates, while white and Asian students were more likely to attend selective or zoned schools with higher graduation rates. The
Times also stated that zoned schools with majority white or Asian demographics tended to have higher graduation rates than zoned schools with majority black or Hispanic demographics. While the universal high school choice policy in New York City sought to weaken the link between the conditions in students neighborhoods and their educational outcomes, a 2016 report by
Measure of America found that on-time graduation rates still vary immensely by where students lived.
Special education In 1991 NYCDOE established an entirely segregated school district, District 75, to educate children with complex and significant needs including Autism, Intellectual Disabilities, Multiple disabilities and sensory impairments. District 75 educates approximately 24,000 children across New York City's five boroughs. Among other services, District 75 runs a
travel training program, teaching navigation of the city's subways and buses. In 2021, the mothers of three District 75 students on
Staten Island brought a
class action lawsuit against NYCDOE claiming their children were unnecessarily forced into a segregated learning environment, isolated away from their peers, and forced into excessively long commutes. In 2023 the district was subject to disproportionately high funding cuts of $97 million, affecting the district's ability to provide school supplies and extracurricular activities. As of the 2022–2023 school year, there were approximately 219,000 students with disabilities (20.9% of the student body) being educated in the NYC school system. The most prevalent disability classifications are learning disabilities (40%) and speech or language impairments (32%). Boys outnumber girls with IEPs by two to one.
Programs Serving Specific Individualized Education Program Classifications Autism Nest Introduced in 2003 as a partnership between NYCDOE and the NYU
Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, the Nest program is designed to meet the needs of
autistic students who have average to above average intelligence, age-level spoken language, memory and attention. Classrooms are located in community Districts 1–32 and follow an Integrated Co-Teaching (ICT) model, with two teachers: one special education teacher and one general education teacher. Class sizes are smaller than typical NYC ICT classrooms. Students are expected to participate in standard assessments. Instruction is based on the principles of
Applied behavior analysis. Art focused schools, including
High School of Art and Design and
Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School have tended to produce notable artists, actors, and fashion over the past century, while STEM focused schools, including
Stuyvesant High School and
Bronx High School of Science boast Nobel Prize winners and scientists among their notable alumni. Many now famous alumni also interacted with one another while attending public school together. One particular vocational high school,
George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School, is widely known in Brooklyn to have helped produce four rap legends. In the 1990s,
Jay-Z,
Busta Rhymes,
DMX, and
The Notorious B.I.G. all attended the same school. Similarly, at
DeWitt Clinton High School in
The Bronx, famed novelist
James Baldwin and photographer
Richard Avedon both contributed to their school's literary magazine,
The Magpie, in the 1930s. ==Infrastructure==