Leaving BPS, Day by Day
The district announced proposed school closings on Oct. 2. Three weeks later, the district's own records still show no wave of students leaving. Late records keep arriving, though: exits dated Oct. 13 to 19 went from 32 to 42 in the latest refresh. So the newest days will keep rising.
"Left BPS" means the record ended with a transfer out of the district: to a charter or another public school, a private school, home schooling, another state or country, or a GED program. The newest days are still incomplete. See "Recent days are incomplete" below.
Students leaving the district, each school day
Weekend entries are counted on the following Monday, and Columbus Day entries on the Tuesday, both years. Early September is high both years because students who switched schools over the summer are recorded once classes start.
The nine schools the proposal affects, since Oct. 2
| School | Left BPS | Moved within BPS | Marked not attending |
|---|---|---|---|
| All nine | 18 | 12 | 73 |
"Marked not attending" is almost all from Oct. 6, when the district closed out 394 students across the city who had stopped coming or never came. That happens every year just before the state's October headcount: last year it was 515 students on Oct. 3, and the same nine schools had 73 of them (East alone had 45 then, 41 this year). It reflects attendance, not a reaction to the closings.
The nine follow the superintendent's Oct. 21 resolution: the seven schools it would close or change, plus Leonardo da Vinci and Research Lab, which would share the Riverside building. It added PS 17 and took PS 82 off the list, so PS 17 replaces PS 82 here. The resolution was withdrawn before a vote, and no new vote date has been set.
What public data can't tell you
- Recent days are incomplete.
A student's exit is usually recorded when the new school asks for records, often a week or more after the student left, and it's usually dated back to the last day the student attended. Last year's numbers are final. This year's are a snapshot from the Oct. 25 refresh. The dashboard only shows its current version, but this page has now read three of them. Exits dated Oct. 2 to 9 grew from 44 at the Oct. 11 refresh to 64 at Oct. 20, then only to 66 at Oct. 25. Last year's final count for those days was 96. So the newest days should keep rising, but the first week may be close to final.
- No reasons are recorded.
The records say where a student went, not why. Families move every fall for jobs, housing and custody changes. A closing announcement would only show up as more exits than usual, and the extra would have to be bigger than the normal day-to-day swings.
- Charter moves can't be separated out.
The state code for a transfer to a charter school is the same code used for a suburban district or any other public school in New York. So the data can't say how many students went to charters.
- The closings are for fall 2027.
Families reacting to a closing more likely leave at the end of this school year than in the middle of it. Applications and registrations for next year aren't on the dashboard. The real test is next fall's enrollment.
- The counts per school are very small.
A typical day has zero to three exits per school. Over one week a single family with three children can look like a trend.
- Charter schools report separately.
Charter enrollment reaches the state once a year, as of the October headcount. The state publishes it more than a year later, so students arriving at charters can't be seen from this side either.