Family Life Academy Charter School

At 49.5% ELA and 52.4% math proficiency, Family Life Academy is outperforming District 9 averages of about 44.75% and 44.7% — not by a lot, but meaningfully given that 92% of its students are considered economically disadvantaged. The trajectory is one of real volatility: the school peaked at 55.4% ELA and 52.3% math in 2018-2019, cratered to 32.4% ELA and 26.5% math in 2022 during the pandemic, and has climbed steadily since. Results are fairly consistent across grades, with 5th graders leading in both subjects and 4th-grade math the soft spot.

The day-to-day reality at Family Life Academy includes a striking absenteeism challenge: 60.4% of students were chronically absent in the most recent year, and overall attendance sat at 89.9%, just below the District 9 average of 90.1%. That gap matters more than it sounds in a school where most families are working multiple jobs and juggling transit; getting kids to school every day is genuinely hard. Girls (64%) were chronically absent at higher rates than boys (56.5%), which is worth asking the school about directly.

This is a predominantly Hispanic school — 78% of students — with a Black enrollment of 21% and very small representation from other groups. The economic need index of 91.7 places this firmly in the city's high-need category, and 9% of students have IEPs. The student body closely mirrors the surrounding Mount Eden-Claremont neighborhood, where median household income is around $45,400 and over a third of residents live below the poverty line.

Mount Eden-Claremont (West) is a working-class, predominantly renter neighborhood — only 4.4% of households own their homes, and a median home value around $262,000 is modest by city standards. Just 16.2% of adult residents hold a bachelor's degree, and 32.3% live below the poverty line, but 19.3% of households include children, which keeps neighborhood schools full. Families here are deeply transit-dependent and rooted in long-standing community ties.

The 170 St station on the 4 line is essentially at the school's front door (about a 1-minute walk), with the B and D trains at the same station about 6 minutes away and the 4 train at 167 St roughly 8 minutes on foot.