With the school year about to begin, many students attending schools in Queens can expect overcrowded classrooms.

That’s because Queens had the greatest number of overcrowded school buildings of any borough in both the 2006 to 2007 school year and the 2008 to 2009 school year, according to data provided by the Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE), a non-profit advocacy organization that addresses public education issues. CFE found that in 2008 to 2009, 37 percent of students in Queens attended overcrowded schools and 15 schools had an overcrowded rate greater than 150 percent.

            “In Queens, overcrowding just keeps coming up,” said Denali Dasgupta, associate director for policy at CFE. “We hope that the Department of Education will prioritize these schools.”

A report released by the Independent Budget Office (IBO) in August also shows that overcrowding was most persistent in Queens, where 78 percent of large high schools were deemed overcrowded from 2008 to 2009, down from 84 percent in 2004 to 2005.

Three of the five most crowded large high schools were in Queens, according to the IBO report. Forest Hills, the most crowded large high school in the city, had over 3,600 students enrolled despite a capacity of only 2,153 students. Francis Lewis came in second at 67 percent. Richmond Hill came in fourth with 50 percent.

“The reason is that a lot of kids want to go to school relatively close to their homes or schools they like,” said Doug Turetsky, communications director and chief of staff of IBO.

Out of all small high schools in Queens, 17 percent of students were in overcrowded schools in 2008 to 2009. Middle College High School and Queens Academy High School were two of the five most crowded small high schools for that same school year.

The IBO report said overcrowding improved in large high schools due to an increase in capacity, modest enrollment declines and the creation of small schools. IBO recommended that schools consider enforcing enrollment caps at more popular schools in Queens to curve overcrowding. Another solution is constructing new schools and classrooms.

“We expect that approximately 2,000 new seats will be available in several new schools and additions this September,” Borough President Helen Marshall said.

The current DOE capital plan for 2010 to 2014 calls for building 1,469 new high school seats in the borough by 2016. Another 1,119 are expected to open in September 2012.