At a Glance
A PK-8 neighborhood school in Far Rockaway where parents are deeply engaged and scores are climbing, but staff trust and academic results still trail the rest of District 27.
Best suited for
Local Far Rockaway families who want their child to walk to a PK-8 neighborhood school, value long parent-teacher relationships, and can supplement academic support outside the classroom.
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
- A PK-8 continuum lets students stay in one building from early childhood through middle school.
- Parent engagement is unusually strong — 91% satisfaction and 96% trust in teachers, with perfect marks on school relationships.
- ELA proficiency has climbed from 21% in 2016 to 31% in 2025, nearly a 50% improvement over a decade.
- Suspensions dropped sharply from 13 to 3 over three years, a meaningful climate shift.
- Offers an Accelerated/Honors academic track alongside ELL Support, a notable mix given the school's overall performance level.
Things to consider
- Academic results trail the district by wide margins, with 6th grade math proficiency at just 6%.
- Chronic absenteeism affects more than a third of students — a significant barrier to progress.
- Teacher surveys show very low trust in school leadership (23%) and low safety ratings (38%).
- District 27 has stronger zoned and charter alternatives nearby, including Success Academy South Jamaica and P.S. 066.
- The family survey response rate is only 10%, so parent satisfaction numbers may not capture every family's experience.
Based on 2024-25 data
School SummaryDistrict 27
P.S. 043 sits at the lower end of District 27's spectrum, well behind standouts like Success Academy South Jamaica (96/100) and Scholars' Academy (86/100), as well as stronger zoned peers like P.S. 066 (90/100). It's the kind of school parents in the area often weigh against those alternatives before deciding.
Academics
ELA proficiency of 30.9% and math of 22.5% sit roughly 25 percentage points below District 27's averages of 56% and 57%, and the school's overall rating of 1.07 out of 4 also trails the district's 2.27. But the long view tells a more hopeful story — in 2016, just 21% of students hit ELA proficiency and 14% hit math, so this year's numbers represent meaningful, sustained improvement, with ELA at its highest point on record. Performance is uneven across grades: third-graders post a respectable 43% in math, while sixth-graders hit just 6%, suggesting middle school is where the school struggles most.
Culture
The day-to-day climate shows a sharp split between how families experience the school and how teachers do. Parents give the school high marks — 91% satisfaction, 96% trust in teachers, and a perfect 100% rating on relationships — but teachers tell a different story: only 56% rate instruction quality positively (vs. district 91%), only 23% trust the principal, and just 38% feel safe on campus (vs. district 93%). Attendance is the other big flag — at 83% it lags the district's 90%, with 37% of students chronically absent. The good news is discipline: suspensions dropped from 13 in 2021-22 to just 3 last year, and only 1% of students are suspended overall.
Community
The student body is 59% Black and 37% Hispanic, with very few White or Asian students — a diversity index of 47% reflects a community built around two large groups rather than a broad mosaic. Nearly 88% of students qualify as economically needy and 23% have IEPs, so most classrooms carry significant proportions of students who need extra support. This closely mirrors the surrounding neighborhood, where median household income is $67,668 and about 18% of residents live below the poverty line.
Neighborhood
The Far Rockaway-Bayswater area is a working-class, family-oriented pocket of the Rockaways where roughly 22% of households have children and most homes are rentals (only 29% owner-occupied). A quarter of adult residents hold a bachelor's degree, and median home values sit in the mid-$600Ks despite the high rental share — a sign of how narrow the housing market is here. For families without cars, the A train ties the neighborhood to the rest of the city.
Three nearby A train stations serve the school: Beach 36 St (about an 8-minute walk), Beach 25 St (about a 10-minute walk), and Far Rockaway-Mott Ave (about a 16-minute walk).
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
Science Proficiency
Students scoring proficient or above on the NY State Science 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) · 52 families responded (10% rate)
Programs & Activities
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. 043 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. 043 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.
Middle school (6th grade)
Middle school is one citywide application, made in 5th grade. P.S. 043 admits through one program, and each one has its own admissions method:
- P.S./M.S. 43Zoned81 seats
Middle school application
- Opened
- Wed, Oct 14
- Closes
- Fri, Dec 11
- Offers
- Wed, Apr 7
The DOE’s published dates.
- 1Apply on MySchools during the middle school application, in 5th grade.
- 2Zoned programs give priority to students who live in the zone — a priority, not a guaranteed seat.
- 3Rank programs in true preference order — the match places your child in the highest-ranked one that offers a seat.
Open houses and tours
We haven’t seen open-house dates for this school yet.
From the MySchools admissions calendar, checked weekly.
Make this school part of your plan
Everything on this page is yours to read. An account keeps your research in one place.
No credit card required
Compare head-to-head
Explore nearby
Frequently Asked Questions
- Is P.S. 043 a good school?
- On Motley, P.S. 043 earns an overall rating of 27/100 — 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 27 average.
- What grades does P.S. 043 serve?
- P.S. 043 serves grades Pre-K to 8.
- How do students get into P.S. 043?
- P.S. 043 admits by zone. For elementary grades, children who live in its zone get a guaranteed seat; for the older grades, living in the zone gives priority, not a guaranteed seat.
- Is P.S. 043 public, charter, or private?
- P.S. 043 is a public school in NYC Community School District 27.
- What neighborhood is P.S. 043 in?
- P.S. 043 is in Far Rockaway-Bayswater, Queens.