Epic High School - South

EPIC High School-South, opened in 2014, is one of four city schools founded with grants from the Open Society Foundations to help improve college and career-readiness rates for black and Latino students.

Like other schools in the group, Epic South stresses culturally responsive education, providing students with social and emotional supports including mentors, and tailoring instruction to the individual student. Many classes are interdisciplinary. Epic uses a restorative justice approach to discipline, which emphasizes supportive measures such as counseling and peer mediation over suspensions.

The small school serves a mix of Asian, Hispanic and black students and gives students a voice. For example, student activism led the school to change grading policy that the students said relied too heavily on test scores. Advisories have student leaders as well as teachers.

A downside: attendance is poor. 

The other Epic New York City schools are: Epic High School – North, also in Southeast Queens; Nelson Mandela High School in Brooklyn and South Bronx Community Charter School.

Special education: Most students with disabilities receive only special education classroom services but the school does have team teaching with a mix of general and special education students.

Admissions: The school selects students using the educational option method that admits students with a range of abilities. It gives priority to Queens residents but any New York City resident can apply. (Gail Robinson, web reports and DOE material, November 2018)