Who Can Apply?

All New York City children are guaranteed a seat at a public middle school. Apply to middle school when your child is in their last year of elementary school. Your child must be both of the following to apply:

• A NYC resident AND
• A current fifth grade student, or a current sixth grade student if their elementary school ends in sixth grade

Additionally, current fourth grade students who live or go to school in District 3 can apply to the Center School (03M243); current fourth grade students who live or go to school in Queens can apply to Louis Armstrong Middle School (30Q227); and all current sixth grade students can apply to Baccalaureate School for Global Education (30Q580).

Understand Your Child's Middle School Options

Before you begin exploring middle schools, it's helpful to learn about the options your child has and is eligible for. You can look up or search for middle school programs in the searchable online directory at MySchools.nyc. 

• During the application period, when you're logged in to your MySchools account, you will have a directory experience personalized to your child. This means that your search will include as options only the middle school programs that they’re eligible to attend. If a program is one that your child can't apply to, it will not show up in your account as an option.
• When the application period is closed, or when you are not logged in to your account, all middle schools in the city will appear as search options. If you are using this public view, be sure to check any program's Eligibility Information (see below) to see if your child can apply.

Eligibility Information

A program's eligibility tells you who can apply to it. For instance, if a program’s eligibility is “Open to students and residents of District 27,” this means that only students who live or attend public elementary schools in District 27 can apply. Students who live and attend schools in other districts are not eligible to apply to that program, and will not see or have it as an option on their application.

Middle school programs have different eligibility criteria:

• District programs are open to students in the district where your family is zoned for middle school and, when different, in the district where your child goes to public elementary school. 
  • Some district programs are open only to students who live or go to school in that district.
  • Other district programs may be open to a smaller group of applicants. If a program’s eligibility is “Open to students residing in the zone,” this means it’s only open to applicants who live in the smaller geographic zone around a particular school (rather than the larger middle school district).
• Boroughwide programs are open to all students in a particular borough.
  • Staten Island has only one district (District 31), therefore all students in Staten Island have boroughwide eligibility to all Staten Island middle schools.
  • All students in the Bronx have boroughwide eligibility to all Bronx middle schools, in all Bronx districts. This means:
    • All Bronx middle schools will appear as options for your child's middle school application.
    • All students who live or go to school in a Bronx district will have an admissions priority to attend middle schools in that district or districts.
    • If seats remain, applicants who live and go to school in other Bronx districts will then be considered for admission.
• Citywide programs are open to all NYC students.

Schools and Programs

When you apply to middle schools, you’re not just applying to schools: you are applying to programs. Think of programs as doorways into a school. Some middle schools have more than one program, such as a general education program and a Dual Language Spanish program. If you’re interested in applying to more than one program at the same school, each program counts as a separate choice on your child’s application.

Explore Middle Schools and Programs

• Search for specific schools. Type any school's name in the search box to learn more about it.
• Search for schools based on your own criteria. Consider what matters most to your child and family. You can search for schools by features or offerings: try typing "debate" or "band" in the search box.
• Filter to narrow your search. Use the filter buttons below the search box to narrow your search results based on what is important to you, such as accessibility, location near a specific subway line, sports offered, and more.
• Learn about your zoned school, if you have one. Many middle school students in New York City attend their zoned school. If you have any zoned schools, your child has a priority to attend them.
  • During the application period, log in to MySchools to learn if your child has a zoned school or schools. Your account will also show the district(s) where your child can attend district middle school programs (their middle school district and, if different, the district where they attend elementary school).
  • Any time of year, learn about your child's zoned middle school(s) and middle school district by entering your address at https://schoolsearch.schools.nyc/ or calling 311.
• Read on to better understand how students get middle school offers and what this means when you choose programs for your child's application.

You can also enter a school's name at schoolsearch.schools.nyc to read its School Quality Snapshot, School Quality Guide, and other reports.

More Middle School Options

• Alternative middle schools. Learn about programs for students older than 13 who have not yet completed eighth grade.
• Charter schools. These public schools have a separate admissions process. Learn more at schools.nyc.gov/Charters, and contact charter schools directly to learn how to apply.

Factor: Your Application Choices

The most important factor in determining where your child goes to middle school is the choices you list on the application. When you are logged in to MySchools, you will see all the middle school programs that your child is eligible to add to their application.

• Save programs of interest by clicking the stars next to their names. This will add them to your list of Favorites.
• Choose up to 12 programs that your child would like to attend. You can add programs to your child's application directly from the directory or from your Favorites list.
  • Adding more choices increases your chances of getting an offer to a school of your choice; it does NOT lower your chance of getting an offer to any of your top choice programs.
  • You have the same chance of getting an offer from your top choice whether you include only that choice or 12 choices.
• Be sure to place these programs on the application in your true order of preference, with your child’s first-choice program at the top as #1, their second-choice program as #2, and so on.
  • This order matters! Your child will be considered for their first-choice program first. If they don’t get an offer to their first choice, then they will be considered for their second-choice program as though it were their first choice, and so on.
  • Middle schools will not see this order, so they will not know if they are your first or twelfth choice.
  • Your child will get an offer from their highest possible choice considering the other factors discussed in this section.

Remember: Submitting a middle school application is your best opportunity for your child to get an offer to a school you prefer, so be sure to make thoughtful choices!

Factor: Seats and Demand

Each middle school has a specific number of seats for sixth grade students.

Seat Groups

Each program admits general education students and students with disabilities.

For Your Application: Your middle school application will show your designation. This is not something you are able to choose or edit.

Special education instructional programming includes Integrated Co-Teaching (ICT) classes, Special Class (SC), and Special Education Teacher Support Services (SETSS). Adapted Physical Education (APE) and Related services, such as speech, occupational therapy (OT), and physical therapy (PT), are not considered special education instructional programming for the purposes of middle school admissions.

Please note that students with 504 Plans are not entitled to seats for students with disabilities if they do not have an IEP recommending the student also receive special education instructional programming for more than 20% of their academic program.

Students who are not in a public school setting, but who would be receiving special education service of greater than 20% if they were in a public school setting will be considered SWD for admissions. If you believe this is the case for your child please reach out to specialeducation@schools.nyc.gov.

Demand

• You can find out how many students a program accepted last year (Seats) and how many total students applied for those seats (Applicants) in the Admissions > Seats and Demand section of MySchools.
• You can learn how high-demand, or popular, a program was by how many people applied for each available seat (Applicants Per Seat)—a higher number of applicants per seat means higher demand. Note that all numbers in MySchools are from last year.

For Your Application: It's a good idea to apply to some average-demand programs rather than all high-demand programs. The higher a program's applicants per seat (demand), the lower chance any applicant has to get an offer to it.

Factor: Priority Groups

A program’s admissions priorities determine the order in which applicants are considered for offers to each program. If a program has multiple admissions priorities, students are considered in groups.

• All students in priority group 1 will be considered first.
• Then, if seats are still available, students in priority group 2 will be considered next, and so on.

Admissions priorities are only used if a program has more applicants than available seats.

Here are examples of some admissions priorities you might see in MySchools and what they mean:

For Your Application: As you explore your middle school options, check which admissions priority group your child is in for each program of interest.

• Your child will be in different priority groups for different programs.
• Consider applying to at least some programs where your child is in priority group 1. Your child will have a better chance of getting an offer to these programs than students in other priority groups.
• Please note that schools with more than one middle school program may use different admissions priorities for each program.

Middle School Sibling Priority

Middle school applicants have a priority to attend the same school as their sibling, as follows:

• At schools where the final year is eighth grade,
  • Middle school applicants with siblings currently in sixth or seventh grade have priority to attend their sibling’s school.
  • If the school has younger grades (for example, grades K-8), middle school applicants with siblings currently in kindergarten, first, second, third, fourth, or fifth, sixth, or seventh grade have priority to attend their sibling’s school.
• At schools that continue through twelfth grade, middle school applicants with siblings currently in sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, or eleventh grade have priority to attend their sibling’s school. 

Applying for Multiples

If you have more than one child of the same age applying to middle school (i.e., twins), families have the option to submit identical applications for both children so that they receive an offer to the same program:

• Families with more than one middle school applicant connected to their MySchools account only need to submit one set of application choices if they want these children to attend the same program. Before a family submits that application, MySchools offers the option to add the same application choices to the other child’s (or children’s) application(s). 
• If a family includes an audition, language: criteria, or screened program on their children's identical applications, and only one child is accepted to that program, then the children may receive separate offers.

How to Apply

Most NYC students apply to middle school during their fifth grade year, or if different, their final year of elementary school. Families apply by submitting a middle school application. Additionally, some arts-based middle school programs hold auditions.

During the application period, you can access your child's personalized online application. When you're logged in to your MySchools account, you can see and explore every middle school program where they are eligible to apply. From these options, you can add up to 12 middle school programs to your child’s application. Add the programs that interest you and your child the most and rank them in your true order of preference in the application.

• Consider adding the programs where your child has an admissions priority or guarantee, such as their zoned school(s) or continuing school. You do not have to place any of these programs as your first choice to keep your priority.
• Make an appointment to talk to your child's school counselor. Discuss your child's middle school application choices and how you plan to rank them.
• Use MySchools to explore your child's middle school options. Be sure to check the "Selection Criteria" section of each program's MySchools page to see if there are any additional admissions requirements, such as an audition.

During the application period, you can apply one of three ways:

• Online at MySchools.nyc or
• Through your current school counselor (for public DOE and charter school students)
• Through a Family Welcome Center (for private or parochial school students)

You can apply in English, Arabic, Bangla, Chinese, French, Haitian Creole, Korean, Russian, Spanish, or Urdu in MySchools. If you would like to apply using another language, call us and ask for an interpreter.

Questions? We're here to help.

• Talk to your school counselor.
• Call us at 718-935-2009
• Contact a Family Welcome Center.