New York City residents wishing to register for schools are assigned to a school zone based on their home address. These boundaries have important organizational and political significance.
They influence access to integrated schools and programs for gifted students. Digital data can help examine these racial and spatial patterns, including the intentional choices made by government officials that created these districts.
Boundaries
As the City prepares for the next round of school district boundary adjustments, many parents are eager to learn more about how the process will impact their children’s educational opportunities. To support that work, we created the NYC Boundaries Map—a visualization of overlapping administrative boundaries that govern the City: community districts, precincts, elected officials, and school districts.
In addition to showing where these lines overlap, the map reveals important historical contexts. These include, for example, how and why certain boundaries have been drawn or shifted over time, often marking pivotal junctures in New York City history that set the stage for today’s educational inequality and spatial divisions.
Over the years, student population projections and shifts in residential housing patterns have required periodic changes to neighborhood school district boundaries. When these happen, the process of redrawing boundaries involves a complex analysis of the needs of local communities and is guided by a range of factors, including transportation patterns, housing stock and affordability, pre-K 12 feeder patterns, and existing school capacity. Following extensive study and public engagement, the committee responsible for school boundary adjustment recommendations submits them to the City Council and School Board for review.
While schooling in NYC is formally desegregated, it remains common for students in racially segregated neighborhoods to attend the schools closest to their homes, even when those schools are far from the best fit. This dynamic is driven by the way in which housing and school district boundaries are drawn, often limiting opportunities for educational access and equity (Cohen, 2021).
The process of drawing and changing school boundaries also shapes the way the City organizes itself geographically, redefining its borders and defining its sense of place. This is particularly evident in the ways in which school district boundaries overlap with other geographic units: city, county, ZIP Code, and taxing districts.
To find out more about the current school zone where you live, you can enter your address on the City’s “Find a School” tool or check out the DOE and Inside Schools websites. Please note, however, that the school zoning information available on these sites may not reflect recent boundary changes in areas like Lower Manhattan, Upper East Side, Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst and Bath Beach.
Subdistricts
When a school district is divided into multiple subdistricts, it may be necessary to create a legal description of the boundary line that divides them. This is known as a “district determination.” The purpose of this process is to ensure that the boundaries are clearly identified and that all relevant data are included in the school districts’ records. A school district determination can be made by the superintendent or by a person appointed by the superintendent. The process for requesting a district determination is outlined in the state education law.
In New York City, geographic school subdistrict boundaries matter today in two ways: they largely determine educational access and exacerbate inequalities, even as families increasingly use choice mechanisms to attend schools outside their neighborhood boundaries (School Diversity Advisory Group, 2019). As such, it is essential for scholars, activists, and reformers interested in transforming schooling to understand how these boundaries came to be where they are.
While existing historical scholarship on district and school boundaries examines many different documents related to boundary discussions at particular moments in time, they rarely consider the ways in which these decisions were made based on the contexts of specific neighborhoods. In this case, the history of Brooklyn’s school subdistrict boundaries can offer important insight into the ways in which educational inequality and segregation continue to be constructed through the design of within-district boundaries.
To make this project possible, we have collected digitized maps and other geographic data from a wide variety of sources, including local government, federal agencies, and community organizations. These archival and other resources allow us to investigate the role of school subdistrict boundaries in shaping residential patterns and the development of the borough’s diverse communities. For example, we are examining maps produced by the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) in the 1930s to analyze how the racial and economic composition of neighborhoods was used to evaluate mortgage lending risk, which then shaped the creation of school subdistrict boundaries.
We are also analyzing data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, which uses school district boundaries to develop annual estimates of children in poverty and to allocate federal funding to states and local education agencies. Using this data, we will investigate how changes in school subdistrict boundaries have influenced these estimates over time and the extent to which they reflect intentional choices by city, state, and federal officials to promote or diminish educational inequality and segregation.
Zones
School zone boundaries determine where a child will attend public schools. These boundaries are based on a child’s home address and the district that serves it. School zones are used to keep students together and ensure that all children have access to quality education. The process of determining school zone boundaries is complex and often contested by parents.
In addition to school zoning, the city also uses school feeder patterns to delineate where a student will attend as they progress from elementary to middle to high schools. These patterns help to ensure that students stay together as they move through the grades and are able to attend their neighborhood school. These feeder patterns are the primary reason why parents must be aware of their school zone and school options before applying to school.
The majority of students in the city are required to attend their geographic school subdistrict, even though many families use choice mechanisms to attend schools outside their zone. This system largely determines educational access and can reinforce inequalities that exist in school districts, ensuring that students from some neighborhoods have better resources, teachers, and opportunities than those from other neighborhoods.
New York City’s school subdistrict boundary lines are deeply entrenched and firmly attached to local community identities. As such, they can be a significant obstacle to equity-based reform (Cohen, 2021; School Diversity Advisory Group, 2019). Despite the entrenchment of these boundaries, scholars, activists, and citizens interested in the construction of educational inequality should examine the history of these lines and their role in shaping spatially identifiable communities.
Changing school subdistrict boundaries in New York City requires legislative approval and may require the creation of new boundary zones. In some cases, existing boundary lines must be changed due to demographic changes or other factors. The procedure for requesting a change to a school district boundary includes submitting a request to the district and providing supporting documentation, such as maps and resolutions. The district will review the request and make a decision.
The City’s Find a School tool allows people to view their neighborhood school’s attendance zone and apply for enrollment. To view your school zone, type in your address and select the correct school year. If you are interested in attending a school outside your zone, be sure to contact them directly for information on how to apply.
Schools
The New York City public school system is one of the largest in the world. It includes traditional neighborhood schools, charter schools, and magnet schools. Students in grades K-5 attend their assigned neighborhood school. For students ages 11 and older, parents can apply to schools outside of their zone. The application process for popular schools is often very competitive and begins in March. Parents should begin by creating a MySchools account on the Department of Education website. Counselors at Enrollment Offices can help families find their school options and complete applications.
Changing the school zone boundaries would require both local and state political action. As a result, most current proposals for equity-based school reform leave the boundaries untouched. However, if implemented with an intentional equity focus, changing school district boundaries could help promote educational access and diversity for NYC students.
While the racial and socioeconomic segregation of school districts is not entirely the fault of school subdistrict boundaries, these boundaries do play a role in promoting segregation in urban areas. In New York City, many geographic school subdistricts have high concentrations of poverty and enroll student populations that are almost exclusively Black and Latino. This makes it difficult to achieve within-subdistrict school desegregation efforts (Cohen, 2021; School Diversity Advisory Group, 2019).
The city’s public schools are divided into geographic school zones that determine which children may attend each school. Parents can use the city’s school search tool to find their zoned schools by entering their address. Alternatively, they can call 311. During normal business hours, the City’s 311 line transfers all calls about school zoning to a DOE-trained specialist. Parents can also visit InsideSchools, which offers a free membership that allows parents to create lists of schools that their children are eligible for based on their address. In addition, InsideSchools has forums for parents to discuss their experiences with specific schools. It also has an online course for parents on the school admissions process called School Choice 101.
