Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis High School

The school offers AP courses alongside its career-themed pathways in international marketing, foreign trade, and virtual enterprise — a relatively unusual combination for a school this size. Average class size is 25.8, essentially matching the district average of 25.8, which means JKO's small enrollment doesn't translate into dramatically smaller classes, but does mean each student is far more visible to teachers than at a comprehensive high school with 3,000 students. The school's themed focus on business education is its core academic pitch.

JKO's survey numbers are striking: 98% parent satisfaction against a district average of 92%, 100% of teachers rating instruction quality positively (district average 90%), and 99% teacher-principal trust. Zero suspensions across the entire school is genuinely rare for any NYC public school and tells you something real about how the day feels here. The honest caveat: only 22 families responded to the survey, an 8% response rate, so the parent voice comes from a thin slice of the community rather than a broad mandate. Teacher responses numbered 28, but every single one rated instruction quality as positive, which is a strong signal regardless of sample size.

JKO's student body is 64% Hispanic, 23% Black, and 5% each of Asian and White — a population that looks much more like Manhattan's broader demographics than the neighborhood around the building. Only about 7% of households in surrounding Midtown-Times Square have children, so the school draws almost no walk-ins from the surrounding blocks; students commute from across the borough and beyond. The 80 economic need index shows most families rely on additional support, even as the literal neighbors around the school earn median incomes north of $170,000.

Midtown-Times Square is one of Manhattan's wealthiest and least residential neighborhoods, with a median household income over $171,000, only about 7% of households with children, and 75% of adults holding a bachelor's degree. The blocks around the school are filled with office towers, hotels, and theaters rather than the row houses or apartment buildings that usually surround a public school. For most JKO families, the neighborhood is a destination tied to a commute, not a place where they live.

Three subway options sit within a few minutes of the building: the B, D, F, and M lines at 47-50 Sts-Rockefeller Center (about a 3-minute walk), the N, R, and W at 49 St (about a 4-minute walk), and the S shuttle at Times Sq-42 St (about a 4-minute walk).