At a Glance
A high-needs Staten Island elementary where families feel deeply heard but proficiency has nearly halved since 2019.
Best suited for
Families zoned for the school who value a tight parent-school relationship and are ready to actively partner around attendance and academic support, especially families whose children benefit from a high-IEP, high-need setting with warm adult relationships.
Overall Rating
Rating = average of NY State ELA + math proficiency, grades 3–8
Bands are Motley's thresholds on a 0–100 scale, not New York State performance levels.
How this is scored→What stands out
- Parent-engagement numbers are exceptional — 98% trust in the principal and 100% report strong relationships with school staff
- Roughly nine in ten students arrive from high-need households (economic need index 88.5%), well above the city average
- 27% of students have IEPs — meaningfully higher than typical elementary schools
- Discipline-free across multiple years: zero suspensions reported through 2023-24
- Stronger parent-facing trust scores than teacher-facing trust scores — families and staff are seeing different schools
Things to consider
- Chronic absenteeism at 51% means more than half of students are missing enough school to materially affect outcomes
- The 2019-to-2025 academic decline is one of the steepest you'll find among District 31 peer schools
- Teacher-administration trust at 67% and teacher-reported safety at 75% suggest staff concerns that parents don't seem to see
- No subway access within a 20-minute walk — getting here without a car takes planning
- Overall quality score of 0.85/4 places this school well below every peer school in District 31 listed
Based on 2024-25 data
School SummaryDistrict 31
District 31 includes some of Staten Island's strongest elementary schools — P.S. 35, Naples Street, and P.S. 5 all post scores in the mid-to-high 90s — and P.S. 18 sits at the very bottom of that peer set on both proficiency and overall quality score.
Academics
ELA proficiency of 18.9% and math at 23.6% sit roughly two-thirds below the District 31 averages of 61% — and the trajectory is the more concerning piece. After peaking at 37.7% ELA in 2019, scores have nearly halved; math hit a low of 14.9% in 2024 before a small uptick this year. Grade 4 ELA at just 12% is particularly worrying compared to grade 5's 24.4%. The post-2019 slide at this school has been steeper than at most peer schools in the district.
Culture
Parents rave about this school — 91% satisfaction, 96% trust in teachers, 98% trust in the principal — but the teacher picture is more complicated. Only 67% of teachers trust school leadership and 53% trust their colleagues, while 75% report feeling safe at work (well below the district's 94.8%). The 51.3% chronic absenteeism rate — boys at 56.3%, Hispanic students at 52.6% — is the single most concerning climate signal and likely drives much of the academic slide. Zero suspensions over multiple years points to a calm, relational environment rather than a punitive one.
Community
Of 419 students, roughly 87% identify as Black or Hispanic, the economic need index sits at 88.5%, and 27% have IEPs — meaningfully above citywide norms. The surrounding neighborhood skews more middle-income and homeowner-stable than the school population suggests, hinting that the school's catchment pulls from a different demographic mix than its immediate blocks. Class size of 23.4 matches the district average exactly.
Neighborhood
The West New Brighton-Silver Lake-Grymes Hill area around the school is solidly middle-income, with a median household income around $109,000, 57% homeownership, and a 10% poverty rate. About 42% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and roughly a quarter of households include children — giving the school a real family base to draw from. The neighborhood contrasts sharply with the school's student body profile.
No subway stations are within a 20-minute walk of the school, so families rely on cars, school buses, or local Staten Island bus routes rather than the subway.
Academic Performance
ELA Proficiency
Students scoring proficient or above on the NY State ELA exam.
NYC DOE InfoHub · 2022-23
Math Proficiency
Students scoring proficient or above on the NY State Math exam.
NYC DOE InfoHub · 2022-23
Historical Trends
The dashed line marks 2023, when New York changed its grades 3–8 state tests. Scores before and after it aren’t directly comparable.
2020–2021 data unavailable due to COVID-19
Source: NYC DOE School Quality Reports
Survey Results
NYC School Survey (2025) · 141 families responded (47% rate)
Racial & Ethnic Diversity
NYC DOE InfoHub · 2022-23
Discipline
NYSED Student & Educator Database (2023-24)
Economic Need & Special Populations
How to get in, step by step
Pre-K
P.S. 018 John G. Whittier also has Pre-K classes. They're a separate application from kindergarten, made on MySchools.
Pre-K application
Applications typically open in the winter and close in the spring, with offers in late spring; the city announces exact dates each year.
Kindergarten
P.S. 018 John G. Whittier has an attendance zone. At elementary level, in-zone students get a guaranteed seat. Every family still applies on MySchools: the application confirms the zoned seat, and ranking other schools doesn't cost you it.
Kindergarten application
- Opens
- Wed, Dec 9
- Closes
- Fri, Jan 22
- Offers
- Tue, Mar 30
The DOE’s published dates.
- 1Check that your address is inside the zone — zones change, so confirm it before you sign a lease.
- 2Apply during the kindergarten application, even with a zoned seat.
- 3Rank this school along with any others you'd take, in true preference order.
Open houses and tours
We haven’t seen open-house dates for this school yet.
From the MySchools admissions calendar, checked weekly.
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Frequently Asked Questions
- Is P.S. 018 John G. Whittier a good school?
- On Motley, P.S. 018 John G. Whittier earns an overall rating of 21/100 — the average of the school's New York State ELA and math proficiency, grades 3–8, shown out of 100. Its state test results run below the District 31 average.
- What grades does P.S. 018 John G. Whittier serve?
- P.S. 018 John G. Whittier serves grades Pre-K to 5.
- How do students get into P.S. 018 John G. Whittier?
- P.S. 018 John G. Whittier admits by zone — children who live in its attendance zone get a guaranteed seat.
- Is P.S. 018 John G. Whittier public, charter, or private?
- P.S. 018 John G. Whittier is a public school in NYC Community School District 31.
- What neighborhood is P.S. 018 John G. Whittier in?
- P.S. 018 John G. Whittier is in West New Brighton-Silver Lake-Grymes Hill, Staten Island.