Your independent guide to NYC public schools

All eighth and ninth graders who applied to high schools should have a placement by today, although they may not all be pleased with their assignment. The 7,455 students who were not matched in the first round of the high school process were asked to re-rank their preferences from a list of schools with available space. They could have listed up to 12 choices, but students and parents complained the options were limited. In the supplementary round, all students were matched with a school, regardless of whether they had ranked it or not.

“Any students who didn’t get a placement in a school that they had ranked were given a place at a school with available seats,” said Andrew Jacob, a spokesperson for the Department of Education. One parent posted that her child was placed at a school she didn’t rank. “The supplementary round is back and my daughter was accepted to a school,” the parent wrote. “The letter should have said “congratulations you have been excepted [sic] to a new school that you have never heard about, does not exist yet and that you did not apply to.”Students who want to appeal their assignment from either the main admissions round or the supplementary round must meet with their guidance counselor and explain their reason for the appeal before the form is due on May 7, according to Jacobs. Students must list three programs or schools in order of preference.

An upcoming fair in Brooklyn on May 4 will include representatives from both high schools and a few new middle schools with available space (see below for the full list of participating schools). Three relatively new Brooklyn high schools, Life Academy High School for Film and Music , Kurt Hahn Expeditionary Learning School and Victory Collegiate, apparently have room in their 11th grade classes. It is unclear, however, how students would apply or transfer to these schools in the 11th grade. Several transfer high schools, which are designed for older students who haven’t thrived in a traditional high school setting, will also have representatives at the fair. These include Brooklyn High School for Leadership and Community Service, East Brooklyn Community High School, Olympus Academy, and Metropolitan Diploma Plus High School.  

How did you or your child fair in the supplementary round? As always, we welcome your comments.