Charter Schools Welcome Back More Than 16% of All NYC Public School Students for the 2026-27 School Year
424 charter school campuses prepare to welcome 152,000 students back to school
89% of NYC Charter Schools Open their Doors Ahead of District Schools, Offering Additional Instructional Time
(NEW YORK) – While New York City’s students wrap up their summers, the city’s dedicated charter school leaders and teachers are hard at work preparing to welcome an estimated 152,000 students – more than 16% of all NYC public school students – back to school at the end of the month. Five new schools are opening their doors this year, bringing the total number of public charter schools to 286 across approximately 424 campuses in all five boroughs.
While district schools won’t begin until after Labor Day, approximately 89% of the city’s charter campuses will open in mid- to late August, offering additional instructional time as students catch up from summer break.
Students and families looking for the right fit now have access to the NYC Charter School FINDER, a virtual directory that serves as a definitive catalogue of every charter school campus across the five boroughs. The expansive database can be used to search for campuses by grade level, borough, neighborhood, and/or Community School District (CSD).
“For over a quarter of a century, New York City’s charter schools have been beating the odds and giving hundreds of thousands of families the confidence that their children will receive a high-quality education that allows them to succeed not just in school, but in life,” said James Merriman, Chief Executive Officer of the New York City Charter School Center. “Time on task matters and the extra weeks of learning builds strong academic foundations, curbs the summer slide, reignites curiosity, and sets the tone for the year ahead.”
“Every school we visited, every founder who took our call, every leader who told us what they wished they’d known, all of that is in this building,” said Christina Yi-Perry, Founder and Executive Director of the newly-opened Kwenda Collegiate Girls Charter School in Brooklyn. “New York City’s charter sector has been at this for more than 25 years, and Kwenda gets to start with that inheritance. Our kindergarteners and first graders are the ones who benefit.”
Key Data Points & Trends:
- 2026-27 marks the 28th year of charter schools operating in New York City
- More than 1 in 3 Black elementary students in NYC are enrolled in a charter school
- Nearly 90% of charter school students are Black or Latino
- 79.8% of charter school students are economically disadvantaged
- More than 16% of all New York City public school students attend a charter school
New York City has a total of 286 charter schools, including 5 new schools opening for the first time this year:
- American Dream Charter School II (Bronx, Grades 6-12)
- Kwenda Collegiate Girls Charter School (Brooklyn, Grades K-5)
- South Bronx Classical Charter School V (Bronx, Grades K-1)
- Success Academy Charter School – NYC 17 (Queens, Grades K-1)
- Urban Dove Team Charter School V (Brooklyn, Grades 9-12)
- Strive Charter School (Bronx, Grades K-4)
