At a Glance
A small therapeutic high school where every student gets an individualized plan — and every adult knows their name.
Best suited for
A high school-aged student with a learning difference, language-based need, or executive-functioning challenge whose family prioritizes emotional safety, daily therapeutic support, and being truly known by adults over a competitive college-prep trajectory.
What stands out
- Exceptionally small enrollment of 101 students with a 6.7:1 student-teacher ratio, allowing genuinely individualized daily attention.
- Integrated on-site clinical team offering speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, and social work services within the school day.
- A dedicated Executive Functions program targeting organization, planning, and self-regulation skills that often go unaddressed in traditional settings.
- A Work-Based Learning program connecting older students to real-world job experiences, useful for teens whose path runs through vocational rather than purely academic routes.
- Nonsectarian special education model that can serve families across a wide range of backgrounds and belief systems.
Things to consider
- Parent reviews are genuinely mixed — many families describe the school as life-changing for a struggling teen, while others feel the academic program is not rigorous enough and worry about college readiness.
- Tuition runs $38,545 for 2024-25 with no published sibling or financial aid detail, so families should confirm costs and aid eligibility directly.
- At 101 students across four high school grades, the extracurricular and elective menu is necessarily thin compared with larger private schools.
- The nearest subway (F at Jamaica-179 St) is a 15-minute walk, making this a car, bus, or arranged-transportation school for most city families.
- Some reviewers have raised concerns about bullying, which is worth asking the admissions team about directly during a visit.
Identity
SUMMIT is a nonsectarian, coeducational special education high school serving grades 9–12, organized around an individualized, holistic philosophy that integrates clinical supports directly into the school day. Teaching is research-based and flexible, with class structure built around each student's profile rather than a single curriculum track. The "Level: Elementary" tag in some directories appears to be a data-entry artifact — the school itself serves high schoolers.
Community
With only 101 students total, this is the kind of place where everyone knows everyone — there is no anonymity by design. The student body is roughly 70% White, with the remaining students spread across Hispanic, Asian, Black, multiracial, and Native American backgrounds, and a moderate diversity index of 0.55. Families typically arrive via referral from other schools, psychologists, and clinicians rather than from the immediate neighborhood.
Neighborhood
Jamaica Estates-Holliswood is a residential, largely single-family-home stretch of eastern Queens with a median household income of about $89,000 and a college-educated adult rate approaching 48%. It feels suburban despite being inside the city — quiet blocks, driveways, and parkway access rather than dense sidewalks. The school itself is on Grand Central Parkway, set back from the typical retail strips of the area.
The nearest subway is Jamaica-179 St on the F line, about a 15-minute walk from the school — so most families will drive, get dropped off, or arrange other transportation rather than rely on the train.
Notable Programs
What Parents Are Saying
Mixed reviews - parents praise nurturing environment, caring teachers, and life-changing impact for students with learning differences; some concerns about academic rigor, lack of college preparation, and bullying issues
Synthesized from public parent reviews · Apr 2026
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Frequently Asked Questions
- Is SUMMIT SCHOOL a good school?
- Published quality ratings aren't available for SUMMIT SCHOOL yet on Motley. It's a private school serving grades 9 to 12 in Jamaica Estates-Holliswood.
- What grades does SUMMIT SCHOOL serve?
- SUMMIT SCHOOL serves grades 9 to 12.
- How do students get into SUMMIT SCHOOL?
- SUMMIT SCHOOL runs its own private admissions process — typically an application, a visit, and sometimes testing.
- Is SUMMIT SCHOOL public, charter, or private?
- SUMMIT SCHOOL is a private school.
- What neighborhood is SUMMIT SCHOOL in?
- SUMMIT SCHOOL is in Jamaica Estates-Holliswood, Queens.