Students in failing city schools will be allowed to transfer, the Department of Education said.
The city is in the process of phasing out 39 struggling schools. The Panel for Educational Policy will vote in March on whether to phase out another 22, including three in Queens.
The transfer option will give students a chance to succeed at better schools. This is the first year all students at phase-out schools have been given the choice.
“We believe in providing good school choices for all students and families, and this new transfer option will enable families in low performing schools to gain access to higher performing ones across the city,” said DOE spokesperson Devon Puglia.
Transfer applications with a list of high-ranking schools will be sent to about 16,000 eligible students in March, the department said. Priority will be given to students with the lowest scores and “greatest need.”
Students who are granted the transfer would be able to start at their new school in September.
The three Queens schools proposed for phase out this year are P.S. 140 in Jamaica; Law, Government and Community Service High School in Jamaica; and the Business, Computer Applications & Entrepreneurship High School in St. Albans.
P.S. 156 in Laurelton faces a possible truncation, which will eliminate its middle school.
One grade would be eliminated at a time from the troubled schools under the phase-out process.
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