Brooklyn Democracy Academy

Teacher-rated instructional quality sits at 90%, marginally above the District 23 average of 89.4% — a small but real vote of confidence from staff in what's happening in classrooms day to day. With 36% of students classified as IEP and an economic need index of 89.8%, the student body comes in with significant academic headwinds, and this reads as a school calibrated to help students catch up rather than lead the district.

The discipline picture is the headline: zero suspensions in the most recent reporting year, against a district average suspension rate near 1.6%. Parent-principal trust is at 97% and parent-teacher trust at 93%, both strong — though only 12% of families returned the survey, meaning the signal comes from 20 respondents rather than the full parent body. Teacher collegial trust is the softest number at 82%, but with only 17 teachers total responding, each percentage point reflects just one or two staff members.

The school's 142 students are 73% Black and 21% Hispanic, with small shares of Asian, white, multiracial, and Native American students — a profile that closely mirrors Brownsville, where the poverty rate runs above 37% and median household income sits around $33,500. Thirty-six percent of students have IEPs, well above the citywide share, and the economic need index of 89.8% confirms that almost every family here is stretching to make ends meet. This is very much a neighborhood school serving neighborhood kids.

Brownsville is a low-income, predominantly renter neighborhood in eastern Brooklyn — only about 14% of households own their homes, the poverty rate runs near 38%, and just under 8% of households have children under 18, which is unusually low for a residential area and reflects the population skew. Median household income sits around $33,500, and only about 13% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher. The blocks around the school are working-class, densely built, and tied to the rest of Brooklyn by subway.

Three subway stops serve the school: the 3 at Rockaway Avenue (about a 10-minute walk), the L at New Lots Avenue (about 9 minutes), and the L at East 105th Street (about 11 minutes).