NYC PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOLS KICK OFF THE 2024-25 SCHOOL YEAR EARLY
Eight New Charter Schools Bring Charter Enrollment to Estimated 149,000 Students – More Than 15% of City’s Total Public School Enrollment
More than 60% of NYC Charter Schools Open in August Providing Students More Learning Time
(New York, NY) – It’s still August, but for weeks NYC’s dedicated charter school leaders and teachers have been getting ready to welcome back an estimated 149,000 students this month, a 2% increase in enrollment over last year and a 12.6% increase since the 2019-2020 school year. Eight new charter schools will open their doors this year, providing new educational opportunities in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens, and bringing the total number of charter schools to 281 for the 2024-25 school year.
More than 25 years after the launch of NYC’s first charter school (check out the celebration!), charter schools continue to provide NYC parents and students with high-quality options when choosing a public school that is right for them, and families continue to value and take advantage of that opportunity.
“Long before the traditional post-Labor Day start of public school, charter school leaders and teachers have been preparing for and, in many cases, welcoming back their students, getting a jump on the academic year,” said James Merriman, Chief Executive Officer of the New York City Charter School Center. “It’s hard to come back in August, but charter school leaders and teachers know that the only way to combat chronic absenteeism and gaps in learning is more time and concentrated effort, and I applaud their dedication. It’s certainly a big reason why charter school enrollment continues to increase.”
“In the past six months, we received over 550 applications for 150 Kindergarten and first grade spots,” said Ashish Kapadia, Executive Director of Central Queens Academy Charter Schools, whose recently-approved second elementary school, CQA II, will welcome students for the first time on August 27. “That demand has been there for a while, and so, we really just wanted to do right by the local community and our families. We felt like the only way that we could do that was to serve more of them.”
NYC charter school enrollment and program trends:
- Enrollment in NYC charter schools experienced a 12.6% increase between 2019-20 and 2023-24 school years.
- Between 2019-20 and 2023-24 school years, MLL/ELL enrollment in charter schools increased by nearly 60% (from 9,256 to 14,752).
- In the Bronx, charter school enrollment increased by more than 33% between 2019-20 and 2023-24 school years.
- The City’s charter school sector now includes 33 Pre-K programs, 7 single-sex schools, 9 schools for high-risk students, 9 dual-language schools, and 50 schools offering programs for students with autism or that have more than 25% of students with IEPs.
Get all the 2024-2025 NYC Charter School Facts.
