There are hundreds of charter schools in NYC that are spread out across the five boroughs. With so many options, it can be challenging for parents to find a perfect school for their child.
A new online resource is available that aims to make the charter school selection process easier for families. Earlier this month, the New York City Charter School Center launched a new NYC Charter School FINDER, a catalogue of the city’s 281 charter schools located across more than 410 campuses.
Parents and students use the database to search for schools based on a variety of criteria such as grade level, borough, neighborhood and community school district.
Critical information is ‘at families’ fingertips’
Representatives from the Charter School Center say the new resource is “the most comprehensive database of its kind” in New York.
“New York City families have a choice in public education. With the NYC Charter School FINDER, we’re working to make that choice as easy as possible,” said James Merriman, CEO of the New York City Charter School Center.
The directory is designed to streamline user information based on their criteria. Each campus has its own directory page with contact information, location, grades served, and school data, including available achievements.
“By putting critical information about the city’s hundreds of public charter schools at families’ fingertips, we’re empowering them to find the schools that best meet their children’s needs,” Merriman said. “We’re confident that this tool will make researching our city’s unique charter schools more straightforward and accessible.”
Charter schools: a growing trend
As of 2024-2025, charter schools in New York City serve about 149,000 students in all five boroughs. According to the Charter School Center, around 15% of the city’s public school students attend charter schools.
Although charter schools are tuition-free and educators have more freedom in creating their curriculum, they are still accountable to the people who authorized them. They can be shut down if they do not meet achievement standards.
In the meantime, charter school education continues to grow in popularity, with many charter schools having opened in recent years throughout the country, experts have said. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, public charter school enrollment more than doubled, from 1.8 million to 3.7 million students—an overall increase of 1.9 million students—from 2010 to 2021.
