Understanding the Bigger Picture

Abstract

Catchment Zone refers to the school the Department of Education assigns to you based on your address. If your catchment zoned school contains both a General Education program and a Gifted and Talented program, this assignment refers only to the General Education program of the school. Districts are wider areas encompassing Catchment Zones and contain multiple schools within. Districts offer both General Education programs and Gifted & Talented programs (accessible only through testing), sometimes as dual programs within the same school. Additionally, some schools in a district might admit students into their programs through a lottery. Out-of-District options might include City-Wide Gifted & Talented programs, Charter Schools and unzoned schools whose admission process might be lottery-based, testing-based, or determined by each individual school. Five boroughs, 32 community districts, 1,500 public schools and 1.1 million students.