P.S. 032 The Gifford School

With ELA proficiency at 73.3% and math at 75.3%, P.S. 032 runs comfortably above the District 31 averages of roughly 61% in both subjects. The improvement has been steady and substantial: ELA has climbed from 57.1% in 2016 to 73.3% in 2025, and math from 58.7% to 75.3% over the same span. Performance is strongest in Grades 3 and 4, where both subjects land in the high 70s. Grade 5 dips noticeably (ELA 68.3%, math 67.9%), which is worth asking about if your child is approaching that transition. The overall quality score of 2.97 out of 4 also clears the district average of 2.45.

The day-to-day climate reads warm and stable. Parent satisfaction sits at 96%, parent-teacher trust at 97%, and parent-principal trust at 95% — families feel heard. Teachers rate their own instruction quality at 99% and report safety at 100%, and the school recorded zero suspensions in 2023-24 after just one the year before. The one metric that sits noticeably lower is teacher-principal trust at 85%, still solid but the gap compared to other trust measures is the kind of thing worth probing at a tour. Attendance is healthy at 93.4%, above the district average, though chronic absenteeism at 79.2% is high even by post-pandemic NYC standards — meaning most students miss 10% or more of the school year. That figure deserves a direct conversation with the school.

The student body is 63% White, 18% Hispanic, 16% Asian, 1% Black, and 2% multiracial — a demographic mix that closely tracks the surrounding neighborhood, where 80.5% of households own their homes and the median household income is just under $120,000. Twenty-five percent of students have IEPs, a higher share than you often see in affluent zoned schools, and the economic need index of 33.2 confirms this is a relatively comfortable but not uniformly wealthy population. PTA fundraising came in at $232 per student, well above the district average of $141, which signals an active parent organization with real reach.

Great Kills-Eltingville is a residential, suburban-feeling corner of Staten Island where most families own their homes (80.5%) and median household income is around $120,000. About a quarter of households have children under 18, and the poverty rate is low at 6.7%. It's the kind of place where kids ride bikes in driveways and parents know each other from the school pickup line — a community that has clearly translated into unusually high family engagement at P.S. 032.

Most families arrive by car or on foot from nearby blocks. The nearest transit is the Staten Island Railway: Great Kills station is roughly an 11-minute walk and Bay Terrace station about 20 minutes. Bus service likely supplements, but this is fundamentally a car-and-sidewalk neighborhood.