P.S. 006 West Farms

Test proficiency remains below district averages — ELA at 34.8% sits about 10 points below the District 12 average of 44.6%, and math at 32.1% trails by roughly 11 points. The trajectory is the more important story: 2025 produced the school's strongest results in nearly a decade, with ELA jumping 12 points year-over-year and math up about 5.5 points. The overall score of 1.34/4 places it below the district average of 1.76/4, but the direction is clearly improving, with grade 5 ELA reaching 40%.

The school's biggest climate challenge is getting students through the door — chronic absenteeism is 47.8%, meaning nearly half of students miss enough school to be flagged, and overall attendance at 86.6% lags the district average of 90.1%. When kids are present, though, the environment reads as calm and orderly: zero suspensions last year (down from one in each of the two prior years), teacher-reported safety at 86% is slightly above the district average, and 89% of teachers rate instruction quality positively. Parents feel deeply heard — parent-principal trust is 95% and parent-teacher trust is 98% — which suggests the families who do show up experience a real partnership with the school.

The student body is 77% Hispanic and 22% Black, with virtually no White, Asian, or multiracial enrollment — a relatively homogeneous population that mirrors the surrounding West Farms neighborhood, where the median household income is $27,829 and over 46% of residents live below the poverty line. Twenty-one percent of students have IEPs, a meaningful share of the school. What stands out is the PTA: families raise $604 per student, roughly 11 times the district average of $53 — a striking sign of unusually active parent engagement for a school serving a high-poverty population.

West Farms is a predominantly renter neighborhood with very low household incomes, a 46.5% poverty rate, and a homeownership rate of just 5.6% — characteristic of the South Bronx corridor. About 10.8% of adult residents hold a bachelor's degree, and roughly 9.5% of households include children, meaning many families here are smaller or non-family households. The median home value of $537,178 sits surprisingly high given the income profile, reflecting broader market dynamics in the area rather than local wealth.

The school is genuinely transit-accessible — the West Farms Square–East Tremont Avenue station on the 2 and 5 trains is about a 3-minute walk, with 174th Street (2/5) about 8 minutes away and East 180th Street (2/5) about 10 minutes away.