Families have always relied on each other to navigate the batty world of New York City public schools. But now there are a bevy of tools that basically allow them to crowdsource the path.
We’ve written about this before and list them below to make the process easier. Also a plea: If you’ve just finished high school admissions for your kid, please consider filling out this survey to help gather data for the next group that’s about to go through this. We did an interview with Rutgers computer scientist Amélie Marian three years ago and she explains why the surveys help determine where you stand the best chances of getting in (generally, if you have a not-so-great lottery number, then the bigger the school, the better your chances).
A disclaimer: These tools skew toward helping those who are tech savvy, with time and connectivity to scroll and search social media, and those who speak English. There are also a variety of factors in assessing a “good school” and, as in college and life, one person’s dream is another’s disappointment. We hope to make the below more ubiquitous to spread awareness–and opportunity. If you have questions or know families who can use some extra help in navigating admissions, please email us at hello@epicenter-nyc.com.
And here are the tools:
Applying to High Schools Facebook Group
Set up by parents navigating the process during peak Covid times, this group is more than 14,000 members strong. With moderators modeling empathy, possibility and accessibility, the crowd is helpful by sharing photos of open houses, ranked lists, and scenarios to choose the right school. There are now offshoot groups also devoted to applying to middle school and college.
On her Medium page, Marian takes you through the last few years of survey results and the various algorithms that determine who gets in where. Don’t miss her explanation of the hexadecimal system that forms the basis of the lottery numbers. And a reminder to fill out her survey!
School Information Finder Tool
New York City father Adrian Liang designed this tool, based on city data, to help his own kid get into high school. Now thousands of families rely on it to gauge their chances, get info on tours and open houses, and input preferences to find a “match.” We interviewed Liang last year and were very impressed. He’s also a FOIL request machine, with a half-dozen inquiries to the NYC Department of Education at all times.
Helpful webinars
There are a few worth sifting through. We recommend two of our own, one a plainspeak guide on getting into a NYC public high school and another focused on special education students.
And this recent one, from schools consultant Maurice Frumkin, offers the best explanation of how waitlists work (and how you might game them) that we’ve seen. (Check out our story on what to do if you didn’t get in where you want.)
Various WhatsApp Groups
You know those play groups you joined when your kid was born? There are admissions groups too, with bands of parents organizing around current schools, neighborhoods, common interests. I belonged to a few this past admissions season and found them super helpful (and not as overwhelming or exposed as the larger Facebook group) in comparing notes, impressions and also reminders of deadlines. If you don’t know of any, feel free to start one!
The resource we haven’t yet given you is the official one: the Family Welcome Center. These are staffed by multilingual employees whose entire job is to help you navigate enrollment in a supportive setting.
And finally, there’s us…
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