Bronx High School for Law and Community Service

Bronx High School for Law and Community Service offers classes in forensics, criminal justice, constitutional law and law enforcement. Students may volunteer in their community, helping wrap presents for the needy or working in a soup kitchen.  There is a courtroom for mock trials.

This safe, orderly and challenging school is a popular choice, drawing up to a dozen applicants per seat. Most students graduate on time including those still learning to speak English and students with special needs. Attendance is a struggle, with more than half the students missing a month or more of school, but achievement is good nevertheless.

Principal Michael Barakat took the helm in 2010. He oversees a staff of happy, experienced teachers, who overwhelmingly recommend the school to other families. One innovative way the school sets a peaceful tone, and helps teens focus, is with a school-wide quiet time at the beginning of the day.  

Barakat has raised academic expectations, offering courses such as physics, calculus and advanced algebra. Graduates have been accepted to many CUNY and SUNY schools as well as Boston College, Dartmouth and Duke University according to the school profile. 

The city’s Quality Review praised the school’s ability to find resources and partnerships, which include Hogan-Lovells Law Firm, NYPD, FDNY and The Justice Resource Center.

Law and Community is one of the six small schools in the Theodore Roosevelt Educational Campus. Students may take part in sports teams with other schools in the building, which has two gyms, swimming pools and a weight room. Junior ROTC is an option and some teens become interns at a commercial bank branch on the first floor of the building. All students must pass through metal detectors to enter the building. 

Admissions: Educational option. Students are picked according to a formula designed to ensure a mix of different abilities. (Lydie Raschka, web reports, November 2018)