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Below are the most frequently asked questions about NYC schools. For additional, detailed information about the school system, take a look at our Parent Resources. What is my neighborhood or zoned school? Call the Department of Education Office of Student Enrollment
Planning and Operations
at (212) 374-2363 or the City of New York at 311. Give them your address
and they will tell you your region, district and the school for which
your child is zoned.
A zone map for each neighborhood elementary school
is available on its profile page here on Insideschools.org.
Search for a school in our Find a school section, and click on the "zone map" link in the "at a glance" section to see the map. On this map, you should be able to see which streets are zoned for the
school. These maps are based on data from
the Department of Education. Zones are subjected to change. Call the school or the City of New York at 311 to
confirm the boundaries.
Parents can apply for a transfer at their district or local
enrollment office. Ask for a "variance
form." Sometimes these transfer or variance forms are available at
the schools as well. For more information, see our complete section on transfers. How often do you update your information? We update the statistical information on our site once a
year, when we receive it from the Department of Education. We publish new comments,
profiles and articles every two weeks. You have not written a profile of my school. Why? As of June 2006, Insideschools has posted reviews of every school in New York City, with the exception of schools in District 75. We will continue to visit schools and update information on the site. Please submit updates and feedback about your school through the comments section on your school’s profile page. If you are interested in having Insideschools visit your school, please write to us also via your school’s profile page.
Can I find out about private or parochial schools on your site? Insideschools.org is a guide to public schools in New York
City. We only profile public schools within the city's five boroughs, and do
not cover private or parochial schools. See our Links section
for a list of websites with information about private and parochial schools and
organizations which have information about schools outside of New York City.
What is registration? Why do I have to register or log in? In order to use the interactive tools -- such as writing directly to us, to a school, or to other users on the message boards -- on the website, you must be registered with Insideschools.org. To register, you only have to provide a self-chosen username (you can choose any name you like), a password (so we know you are who you say you are), and an e-mail address that you check. This ensures that we can get in touch with you with a response to your questions, and that only quality information is posted on the website by users. When you register for the first time, be sure to check your e-mail to activate your account. If you have problems registering or logging in, please send an e-mail to mailer@insideschools.org for assistance. I recently wrote a comment about a school, but don't see it posted. Why? Most comments about schools are edited and posted within two weeks. If you don't see your comment yet, it will probably show up soon. Keep checking back. However, deciding whether to post a comment is up to the discretion of Insideschools staff. If you want your comment to be published, you must include your name and your e-mail address or telephone number so we can contact you with questions. (We will never publish your name unless we have your permission to do so.) We are more likely to post comments about specific problems than sweeping accusations. For example, we would not post a comment saying: "The principal discriminates against girls." However, we would post: "A parent complains that girls' athletic teams at the school do not receive enough attention." We are happy to post comments that disagree with our judgment
about a school. However, we will not post comments that: 1) are obscene, racist,
or otherwise deemed inappropriate and offensive; 2) contain potentially libelous,
unproven and/or unfair accusations against school staff, students, parents,
etc. 3) are deemed out-of-date or irrelevant, or if they repeat a great many
comments about the school that are already posted; 4) are of questionable veracity,
if we are unable to confirm their accuracy, or if the comments are sent anonymously
and we are unable to confirm that they are authentic. A piece of information on the site is incorrect. Can you fix it? Yes. If you see information in one of our school profiles
that is factually incorrect – such as mention of a principal who has since
left, or a note that the school does not have a library, when it in fact does—please
let us know by writing to us through Contact us. If it's
a matter of opinion and not fact, we may not change the information as it appears
on the site, but we'll include your opinion in the Comments section of the school
profile. Can I get my diploma or school transcript by writing a request on this site? Yes. You can use the Speak
Out section of our site to request a diploma or transcript directly from
a school. Fill out the "Request Information"
form in the Speak Out section, and your request will be sent directly to the
school. Remember to include your complete contact information so that school
staff can respond to your request. Please do not send an e-mail to the staff
at Insideschools asking for a diploma or transcript. Can I write to my school or my child’s school directly using this site? Yes. By going to the Speak
Out section you can write a letter directly to the principal of the school,
or the chancellor. Please note that the comments that you write
through our “Parent Comments” or “Feedback” forms come
only to Insideschools and will not be sent to schools. While we can’t
answer complaints about specific schools, we can edit your comments about schools
and post them on the site. I tried to click on an article to read and received an error message. Why? Occasionally our site may experience technical difficulties - perhaps we are updating the server or the server is overloaded. The best thing to do is try back later in the day, or the next day. By then, the problem is likely to have been ironed out. If you continue to experience difficulty, please write to us at Contact us and tell us exactly what the problem is, including the error message that you are receiving. When I try to print a page, text is cut off - how can I print the whole page? Each page has a "Print this page" button at the top of the text. By clicking there you should be able to get a good print out. If you click there and there is still text cut off, try this: On Internet Explorer, click on "File" and then "Page Setup." Set the top, bottom, left, and right margins to 0.25 using Internet Explorer. Can you give me one-on-one advice about good schools in my district or where to transfer my child? We try to answer people directly with this kind of information,
but because of the high volume of questions and comments, we ask that you research
this issue first on our website. Many general questions about schools are addressed
in our Basic information section (located under Parent Resources),
and much information about specific schools can be found under their profiles
in the Find a School area. In addition, our organization,
Advocates for Children operates a parent education helpline
Monday through Thursday from 10 AM- 4 PM at (866) 427-6033. My organization is having an education event. Can you put it on your calendar or e-mail alert? Can one of your staff members attend? We welcome information on upcoming events. You can post the information
about your event on the Insideschools calendar yourself. We can't guarantee that it
will be included in our e-mail alerts but if you send us a note via Contact
us we'll be sure to consider it.
We also welcome invitations
for Insideschools staff to attend events and speak about school issues.
Please invite us through Contact
us. Still have questions? Write to us through Contact us |
