At a Glance
A small southeast Queens elementary where parent trust runs sky-high and test scores have climbed into the top tier of the district.
Best suited for
Families with a reliable car or bus commute who want a small, family-engaged elementary where parents are clearly heard and the academic trajectory has been sharply upward.
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
- Test scores have climbed roughly 20+ percentage points in both ELA and math since 2019, a rare and sustained turnaround.
- Zero suspensions for three straight years — an unusually calm disciplinary climate.
- Parent-principal trust of 98% is among the highest you'll find anywhere in the city.
- Grade 3 results (76% ELA, 83% math) are standout, suggesting a strong early-elementary foundation.
- Small enrollment of about 266 students means most families get to know each other and the staff.
Things to consider
- No subway access within walking distance — this school works best for families with a car or bus route, or those willing to do a longer commute.
- Chronic absenteeism is near 60%, meaning many students miss significant school — worth asking how the school is addressing this.
- Grade 5 proficiency drops noticeably compared to Grade 3, so upper-elementary experience may be uneven.
- Only 13 teachers completed the survey, so the staff-side numbers should be read as directional rather than definitive.
- The school draws from a broader area than its immediate affluent neighborhood, so demographics and economic mix may not match the blocks right around it.
Based on 2024-25 data
School SummaryDistrict 29
In District 29, P.S. 251 sits above the district average on overall score (2.71 vs. 2.21), ELA, and math proficiency, and well above on parent trust measures. It is not a charter-school outlier like the top-scoring Success Academies in the district, but it is a clear outperformer among traditional public schools in the area.
Academics
Test scores have risen sharply over the past several years: ELA proficiency climbed from the mid-40s in the late 2010s to 68.4% in 2025, and math went from 37.5% in 2016 to 67.3%. Both subjects now sit roughly 11 to 14 percentage points above the District 29 averages. The strongest results are in Grade 3 (76% ELA, 83% math), with Grade 5 showing a meaningful dip (61% ELA, 52% math) — a pattern worth asking the school about. Overall, the trajectory is clearly improving and the current standing is comfortably above typical for the district.
Culture
Parents are exceptionally happy — trust in both teachers (97%) and the principal (98%) is near-universal, and teacher-reported safety hits a perfect 100%. Discipline is essentially a non-issue, with zero suspensions reported across three consecutive years. The flip side is attendance: the 88.9% rate trails the district average of 90.9%, and chronic absenteeism is high at nearly 60% of students. Teacher-rated instruction quality (86%) is slightly below the district average, and only 13 teachers responded to the survey, so staff perspective is thinner than usual — worth reading with a grain of salt.
Community
The student body is predominantly Black (68%) with smaller shares of Hispanic (11%), Asian (9%), and multiracial (8%) students, and 20% of students have IEPs. The surrounding neighborhood skews more affluent and more homeowner-heavy than the school's demographics suggest, hinting that the school draws families from a wider geographic area than just its immediate blocks. The economic need index of 58 sits in the moderate range — higher than the neighborhood's income profile would predict, so the school is serving a meaningfully mixed economic mix.
Neighborhood
Springfield Gardens (South)-Brookville is a residential, middle-to-upper-middle-class pocket of southeast Queens where most families own their homes (nearly 65%) and median household income tops $109,000. About a quarter of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and roughly one in six households includes children. It's the kind of area where weekend life centers on local shops, houses of worship, and drive-everywhere errands rather than subway commutes.
There are no subway stations within a 20-minute walk of the school, so families will rely on a car, school bus, or local bus service to get here.
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) · 53 families responded (27% 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. 251 Queens 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. 251 Queens doesn't have an attendance zone of its own, so living nearby doesn't guarantee a seat here. Families apply on MySchools, and seats go to the school's priority groups first, then by random lottery.
Kindergarten application
- Opens
- Wed, Dec 9
- Closes
- Fri, Jan 22
- Offers
- Tue, Mar 30
The DOE’s published dates.
- 1Apply on MySchools during the kindergarten application.
- 2Rank this school with your zoned school, if you have one, and 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. 251 Queens a good school?
- On Motley, P.S. 251 Queens earns an overall rating of 68/100 — 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 above the District 29 average.
- What grades does P.S. 251 Queens serve?
- P.S. 251 Queens serves grades Pre-K to 5.
- Is P.S. 251 Queens public, charter, or private?
- P.S. 251 Queens is a public school in NYC Community School District 29.
- What neighborhood is P.S. 251 Queens in?
- P.S. 251 Queens is in Springfield Gardens (South)-Brookville, Queens.