Nearly a dozen new middle schools will open in the Bronx and Brooklyn next fall. New school applications are available now from elementary school guidance counselors in districts 7, 9, 10, 11, 12,...

In an effort to prevent the sexual abuse of children, my daughter’s elementary school now requires parents to wear little white nametags when we visit classrooms. I’m pleased to report that...

Some Manhattan parents are scrambling to stop a plan to move 150 Harlem Success Academy 5th-graders into a building on the Upper West Side. Critics fear the plan could make the Success Academy...

A change in special education enrollment will likely have some already overcrowded schools coping with a large influx of kindergarten students in the fall. In past years, most special education...

I thought I was courting disaster when I took my four-year-old to Brooklyn's two-hour long pre-k information session Monday night after a full day at pre-school. But with the assistance of an extra...

Anyone who regularly reads Department of Education documents knows better than to expect fine literature. Many DOE memos and letters are so full of the bureaucratic nonsense known as “eduspeak”...

Vasilios Biniarls is a math teacher at a Queens middle school program for gifted students, The Academy at PS 122. He wrote to Insideschools after his name was published in the press as a "Below...

Parents applying to kindergarten for fall 2012 still have questions as the pre-registration period draws to a close on March 2. Here are a few more questions that parents asked at our kindergarten...

"Special needs children need not apply." There was no sign hanging on the main office at PS 289 in Bedford-Stuyvesant last week, but there may as well have been. Essence Louis says she was told...

Dear Judy, My son has been physically attacked several times in elementary school – I call it bullying—but the classroom teacher is no help when it happens and the rest of the staff has not been...

I attended two presentations last week at my daughter’s Upper West Side elementary school. The first featured the chancellor in charge of New York City schools, who was on hand to absorb parents’...

Kindergarten applications are due March 2, and any child born in 2007 may enroll in public school kindergarten. That means that some kids will still be only four years old when school starts. That...

It's not just elite high schools that are being told to increase the number of special education students. The Education Department is also directing selective middle schools to take more students...

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn says kindergarten should be mandatory for all 5-year-olds. In her State of the City address Quinn, who co-sponsored the Insideschools' event on applying to...

Ed Note : Parents of prospective pre-K and kindergarten students had lots of questions at the Feb. 8 Insideschools forum at the New School. There wasn’t time to answer each one individually, so we...

If you missed our forum on "How to apply to public elementary school," you can watch it below. (Please bear with us for the 30 second ad before the video starts). If you'd like to see more events...

The nominating committee for Helicopter Parent of the Year should take note: I recently sent a letter to a 1st grade teacher asking whether my daughter’s homework was too perfect. Let me explain....

We’ve heard a lot of scary stories about kindergarten waitlists at very popular schools, but what about good schools that aren’t hopelessly oversubscribed? Insideschools has compiled a list of...

For some parents, applying to kindergarten has become a second job. They are zoned for schools that are failing, overcrowded or unsafe. They make phone calls, search websites and seek advice in...

In the midst of the kindergarten application season, the Department of Education has posted its first-ever directory of all public elementary schools in the city. The listing indicates which are...

On February 9, the Panel for Education Policy will meet to vote on the future of the 25 schools up for phase-out and closure. Hearings are held at the schools; in some cases parents and students...

New York City public high schools with academic requirements for entry offer a rigorous education, but admission is supposed to be based on performance, not on income. So why do so few low-income...

Insideschools aims to provide up-to-date data on New York City public schools. We rely on official statistics and information from the New York City Department of Education(DOE) and the New York...

Financial mismanagement and low performance have likely doomed a handful of charter schools. The city announced Monday it would move to close Peninsula Preparatory Academy in Far Rockaway, Queens...

The Department of Education set dates for another round of school closing hearings. On February 9th, the Panel for Education Policy will meet to vote on the future of the 25 schools up for...