New York City Transit is “on track” to have its best on-time performance on record. Gov. Kathy Hochul on Monday announced that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is on pace for a record-breaking year, with ridership and on-time service improving across New York City Transit, the Long Island Rail Road, and Metro-North Railroad during the […]
The Bronx Zoo is shining a light on animals that thrive in the dark. After closing in 2009, the World of Darkness exhibit reopened this past weekend, showcasing 25 species of nocturnal creatures, from pygmy slow lorises and blind cave fish to blood pythons and Egyptian fruit bats. The exhibit employs a reverse light cycle, […]
A new nautical-themed restaurant will open this week atop Chelsea’s landmarked Starrett-Lehigh Building. Operated by Crew, the team behind popular boat bars Grand Banks and Pilot, the Yacht Club opens this Thursday, taking up a sprawling 20,000 square feet across two floors at the former 1930s freight terminal. The 125-seat restaurant will offer top-tier seafood, […]
Zenlist is a mobile-first app that enables agents and homebuyers to search properties together. Zenlist has more than 35,000 users and multiple brokerage and MLS partnerships.
Your real estate wishlist changes when you have a child and are looking for an apartment in New York City. Things like views, amenities, and nearby takeout options may still matter to you, but these preferences are usually superseded by a need to find a place within a specific public school zone.
That’s right—admittance at most public elementary schools in NYC largely depends on neighborhood zones. There are some exceptions to this rule, of course, Not every public school child goes to their zoned public school—some students go to charter or private schools, or so-called “choice” schools. If you need to get up to speed on the elementary school application process, check out our elementary school guide for NYC renters and owners.
[Editor’s note: A previous version of this story ran in August 2024.We are presenting it again in case you missed it.]
So how do you figure out the zoned elementary school for an apartment or brownstone you are considering? Here’s what you should—and should not—do, because we at Brick Underground have heard a friend’s heartbreaking tale of plunking down a lot of money for a condo with an amazing school two blocks away, only to find out they weren’t zoned for that school (they got some bad intel) but for another one that was seven blocks away.
Read on so you don’t make a similar mistake.
Don’t rely on guesswork or word-of-mouth
Why take a risk when so much is at stake? Avoid the following at all costs:
Don’t just guess or eyeball the school. To reiterate the sucker-punch lesson from above, just because a school is across the street or next door from a building does not mean it is your zoned school.
Don’t take someone’s word for it, even someone who lives in the building you are considering or in the neighborhood. They might be relying on outdated or incorrect information, especially if their children graduated a long time ago. Things happen, zones get redrawn. The building may have been zoned for the school in the past but is now outside the boundary.
Don’t take a broker’s wordfor it, either, whether the information is in a listing or comes up in conversation. (Brokers, who are people after all, can be misinformed or relying on outdated information.)
Don’t rely on listing sites. While StreetEasy and other websites include “zoned schools” in each listing, they usually come with a disclaimer like this: “School attendance zone boundaries are not guaranteed to be accurate—they are provided by a third party and subject to change. Check with the applicable school district prior to making a decision based on these boundaries.” Heed that advice.
Caption
Searching on the official NYC school website shows zoned schools in blue and other non-zoned schools in orange.
Do your research and call the school to confirm
Here’s the best way to find your elementary school zone and avoid some expensive heartbreak:
Click on “Find a School” in the upper left-hand corner of the site.
Type in your address, leaving out your apartment number. The first listing is your zoned school, which is indicated on the accompanying map with a blue dot.
To be absolutely sure, call the school and ask for the parent coordinator to confirm that your address is in fact zoned for the school.
You can also call 311 or use InsideSchools’s search to find the zoned school for an address, as well as other schools in the district that your child may be able to attend. But once again, always check with the school directly just to be 100 percent sure.
Pro Tip
Pro Tip:
Want to get a comprehensive report on the nearby schools and other institutions before you rent or buy it? Run the address through the Brick Report and get a real estate background check built from all of New York City’s Open Data in one place. Brought to you by Brick Underground.
An all-electric, 30-story residential tower in Downtown Brooklyn launched a housing lottery this week for 98 middle-income apartments. Located at 89 Dekalb Avenue, the sustainable development features a smart glass facade, thoughtfully designed residences, and academic and office space for Long Island University. New Yorkers earning 130 percent of the area median income can apply […]
Construction is entering the final stages on 270 Park Avenue, JPMorgan Chase’s 1,389-foot-tall Midtown East headquarters. Designed by Norman Foster of Foster + Partners and developed by Tishman Speyer, the 60-story supertall skyscraper will yield 2.5 million square feet of office space with a capacity of 15,000 employees, and will become the tallest structure in New York completely powered by hydroelectric energy. Adamson Associates is the architect of record and Gensler is the workplace designer for the project, which occupies a full city block bounded by East 48th Street to the north, East 47th Street to the south, Park Avenue to the east, and Madison Avenue to the west.
Construction is progressing on 440 West 36th Street, where a six-story structure is being expanded into an 11-story residential building in Hudson Yards, Manhattan. Designed by Pinnacle Engineering for Chun-Hsiung Huang of the Yards Realty LLC, the project will raise the structure’s height from 68 to 116 feet and revise its residential inventory from 11 units to nine larger homes. New commercial space will also be added to the ground floor. The property features more than 8,000 square feet of buildable air rights and is located on a narrow interior lot between Tenth and Dyer Avenues.
