Community Education Council 26 (CEC 26) has approved a resolution urging the city to site a specialized high school at a school currently under construction on 88th Avenue in Jamaica in order to address a major shortfall of specialized schools in the borough.
CEC 26 noted that Queens High School for the Sciences at York College at 94-50 159th St. is currently the only specialized high school in Queens, with the school’s 511 seats accounting for just 3.2% of the 15,732 specialized high school seats in the city. Queens High School for the Sciences is also the smallest specialized high school in the city.
In a resolution approved March 20, the council called on Queens Superintendent Dr. Josephine Van-Ess and the NYC Department of Education to address the “severe” shortage of specialized high school seats in the borough by siting a specialized school at an 800-seat high school currently under construction at 165-15 88th Ave.
CEC 26 described the school, dubbed 28Q497, as a “potential viable solution” to the shortfall of specialized high school seats in Queens.
The March 20 resolution further noted that Queens currently boasts 28% of all 8th-grade students in New York City, while 1,305 Queens 8th graders received offers to specialized schools in 2023, representing 32% of all offers made across the city.
CEC 26 further commented that the “severe shortage” of specialized high schools in the borough is currently forcing approximately 4,000 Queens students to travel up to two hours to attend specialized schools in the Bronx, Manhattan, or Brooklyn.
The council additionally noted that Mayor Eric Adams has previously expressed his commitment to expanding specialized high school seats across each borough in order to promote equitable access to academic programs.
In 2022, Adams floated the idea of building a new specialized school in each of the five boroughs, outlining his ambition that the new schools would use “different criteria that doesn’t have to only be standardized testing.”
There are currently nine specialized high schools located within New York City, supporting the educational needs of students who excel academically or artistically.
Admission to eight of the nine specialized schools is based on performance in the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT), while admission to the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts is based on performance in an audition.
To register for the SHSAT or audition for LaGuardia, students must be both a New York City resident and a current 8th-grade student. First-time 9th-grade students can also apply for specialized schools, although applications are not open to students who are repeating the grade.
