At a Glance
A small zoned elementary school in Laurelton where reading scores have climbed dramatically while math plays catch-up.
Best suited for
Families already zoned for the school who value a small, tight-knit community with strong parent leadership connections and don't mind driving — or who can use district transportation — to get there. Particularly good fit for families prioritizing reading and language arts, who'll want to keep an eye on the math side as their child moves through the upper grades.
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
- Extraordinary parent-principal trust at 98%, among the highest you'll see in any city school
- Three consecutive years with zero suspensions
- Dramatic ten-year rise in ELA proficiency, from the high 20s to 64%
- Small enrollment of 166 students gives the school a tight, family-style feel
- Serves a special education (SE) cluster alongside general education students
Things to consider
- Chronic absenteeism at 60.9% is genuinely high — even with average daily attendance, many kids are missing too many days
- Math proficiency trails the district average by roughly 9 points, with the gap showing up most in upper grades
- Teacher survey results came from only 4 respondents, so the instructional-quality signal is too thin to draw firm conclusions
- Low family survey response rate (14%) means the rosy parent satisfaction number is built on a small sample
- No subway access — a real commute consideration for families without a car
Based on 2024-2025 data
School SummaryDistrict 29
Within District 29's elementary landscape, P.S. 156 sits in the middle of the pack on the city progress report (2.19 out of 4, basically the district average). It trails the high-flying Success Academy charters that top the local rankings but outperforms or matches many traditional zoned peers like P.S. 131 and P.S. 95. Its ELA growth is genuinely better than most district schools, while math is a relative weakness — a pattern worth tracking year to year.
Academics
This is a story of momentum. ELA proficiency jumped from 27.3% in 2016 to 64.2% in 2025, putting the school meaningfully above the district average of about 57%. Math tells a more uneven tale: it climbed from 15% to 45.1% but still trails the district average of roughly 54%. The 2025 jump in ELA is striking, though, and grade-level data shows strong reader performance in grades 4 and 5 (around 73%), with grade 3 still catching up at 45.5%. Math is weakest in grades 4 and 5 (around 40-42%), suggesting the school is reading-strong but math-striving.
Culture
The day-to-day feel here is overwhelmingly positive by parent report — 93% of families are satisfied (above the district's 91%), and trust scores are striking: 98% of parents trust the principal and 96% trust teachers. That kind of relationship between families and school leadership is rare. The wrinkle is the teacher survey, where only 4 teachers responded and instructional quality was rated at 59.8%, well below the district's 88% — a number worth flagging because the sample is tiny. Attendance sits at 90.1%, essentially matching the district, though chronic absenteeism is high at 60.9%. On discipline, the school reported zero suspensions across three straight years, which is genuinely distinctive for a school of this size.
Community
P.S. 156's student body mirrors its neighborhood closely: about 78% of students are Black and 15% Hispanic, against a Laurelton census that shows a predominantly Black homeowner community. With only 166 students, classrooms feel tight-knit (average size 23, identical to the district average), and roughly 11% of students have IEPs. The economic need index of 65.5 is moderate for the district — there is some economic stress in the families attending, even though the surrounding census tract is solidly middle class.
Neighborhood
Laurelton is a quiet, owner-occupied Queens neighborhood where most families have a car and most blocks look the same as they did a generation ago. Median household income is about $106,000 and the homeownership rate is 79%, well above city norms. Poverty is low (under 5%) and about a third of adults hold a bachelor's degree. The trade-off is transportation: this isn't a transit-accessible corner of the city, so most families drive or rely on school busing.
There are no subway stations within a 20-minute walk of the school, so families typically arrive by car or school bus — plan commute time and pickup logistics accordingly
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) · 24 families responded (14% 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. 156 Laurelton 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. 156 Laurelton 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.
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. 156 Laurelton a good school?
- On Motley, P.S. 156 Laurelton earns an overall rating of 55/100 — 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 in line with the District 29 average.
- What grades does P.S. 156 Laurelton serve?
- P.S. 156 Laurelton serves grades Pre-K to 5.
- How do students get into P.S. 156 Laurelton?
- P.S. 156 Laurelton admits by zone — children who live in its attendance zone get a guaranteed seat.
- Is P.S. 156 Laurelton public, charter, or private?
- P.S. 156 Laurelton is a public school in NYC Community School District 29.
- What neighborhood is P.S. 156 Laurelton in?
- P.S. 156 Laurelton is in Laurelton, Queens.