P.S. 042 Benjamin Altman

P.S. 042's standout is math: 81.4% proficiency versus a District 2 average of 72.5%, with Grade 5 math reaching 90.5%. ELA proficiency at 73.2% lands exactly on the district average — solid but not distinguished. Historical data shows math has been consistently strong (75-84% across the past decade), while ELA has swung more widely, dipping into the high 50s during 2017-2019 before climbing into the 70s post-pandemic. The school's overall 3.09/4 quality rating edges out the district's 2.91/4 average.

The school environment reads as exceptionally trusting and orderly by the survey data. Parent satisfaction sits at 95%, parent-teacher and parent-principal trust both hit 99%, and teachers rate their relationships with school leadership and colleagues in the high 90s to 100%. Teacher-reported safety is 99% and the school has recorded zero suspensions for three straight years — a meaningfully better disciplinary record than the District 2 average of roughly 0.3%. The counterweight is a chronic absenteeism rate of 84.7%, which is unusually high and shows up across every demographic subgroup, including 94.3% of Asian students. Daily attendance rate of 94% is above the district average, which is a slightly different lens on the same question. The honest read: families and staff report a calm, high-trust culture, but a large share of students are missing enough school days to count as chronically absent — a question worth raising at any tour.

The student body is 78% Asian, 8% Hispanic, 9% White, 2% Black, and 3% multiracial — a composition that mirrors the surrounding Chinatown-Two Bridges neighborhood almost directly, where Asian-American households make up the majority. Twenty-one percent of students have IEPs and the economic need index is 64.8, indicating a mostly working-class and immigrant-community student population. PTA fundraising totals $41 per student, far below the district average of roughly $517 — reflecting the economic profile of the families rather than disengagement.

Chinatown-Two Bridges is a dense, lower-income neighborhood with a median household income around $35,000, a poverty rate of 33.3%, and just under 8% of households with children — a low share that tracks with a population skewing older and with smaller family sizes. Homeownership is just 10.4%, meaning most families rent, and about 30% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher. Despite the modest income figures, this is a deeply rooted community with longstanding ties to the school.

Families have multiple subway options within a few minutes: the F at East Broadway (about 4 minutes), the B and D at Grand Street (about 5 minutes), and the F at Delancey Street-Essex Street (about 5 minutes).