At a Glance
A small, well-trusted zoned school in Lower Manhattan where families stay loyal even as test scores have slipped below the district average.
Best suited for
Downtown families who want a small, safe, tight-knit zoned school with a trusted principal and a genuinely diverse student body, and who are willing to engage directly with the school about declining proficiency and high absenteeism.
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
- Zero suspensions for three consecutive years — a rare and notable climate signal in any NYC elementary school.
- Principal trust scores are at or near 100% from both parents and teachers, suggesting unusually strong leadership stability.
- Strikingly uneven chronic absenteeism by demographic group — White and Asian students miss school at more than double the rate of Black and Hispanic students.
- A genuinely diverse student body (79% diversity index) in one of Manhattan's wealthiest neighborhoods, unusual for a zoned FiDi school.
- Once a top-tier performer, with ELA proficiency above 80% as recently as 2019 — the recent decline is a real shift worth understanding.
Things to consider
- Test scores have dropped meaningfully from peak years and now sit below district averages in both ELA and math.
- Chronic absenteeism is very high at 65%, with most White and Asian students missing 10% or more of the school year.
- Third-grade proficiency (53% ELA, 49% math) is the weakest point and may signal early-elementary instruction gaps.
- PTA fundraising is just $141 per student, well below the district average of $517 — likely reflecting low economic need but also a thinner cushion of parent-driven enrichment.
- Only 14% of neighborhood households include children, so most classmates commute in from elsewhere in Lower Manhattan.
Based on 2024-25 data
School SummaryDistrict 2
District 2 is one of the strongest elementary districts in the city, and Peck Slip sits below the district average both in overall score (2.55 vs 2.91) and in proficiency. Compared with its Lower Manhattan peers — Lower Lab (99/100), Manhattan New School (95/100), P.S. 89 (94/100) — Peck Slip is clearly the second tier on academic results, even though its climate numbers are competitive with anyone.
Academics
ELA proficiency at 66.7% and math at 60.8% both sit below the district averages of roughly 73% and 73%. The trajectory is clearly declining — Peck Slip hit its stride around 2019 with 80.6% ELA and 74.1% math, held strong through 2024, then dropped sharply in 2025. Third-graders are the weak spot, with only 53.1% ELA and 49% math proficiency, while fifth-graders perform considerably better (81.6% ELA, 72.5% math). This is a school whose results used to outpace the district and now lag behind it, a story worth asking the principal about.
Culture
The trust numbers here are the real headline: 99% of parents trust the principal, 100% of teachers trust the principal, and 97% of parents trust their child's teacher. Teacher-reported safety is 98%, well above the district average of 95%. Discipline is essentially a non-issue — zero suspensions for three straight years. The wrinkle is attendance: only 89.2% of students attend regularly (below the district's 92%), and chronic absenteeism hits 65.1% overall, with the burden falling heavily on White (85.7%) and Asian (84.4%) students while Black and Hispanic students show much lower absenteeism (36.8% and 38.5%). Day-to-day, this feels like a warm, safe place where teachers feel supported and families are happy — but where a lot of kids are missing a lot of school.
Community
Peck Slip's student body is 46% White, 16% Asian, 16% Hispanic, 9% Black, and 13% multiracial — a diversity index of 79%, meaning most students attend alongside peers of several different racial backgrounds. The economic need index is just 17.8 (very low), reflecting a school serving mostly affluent downtown families, and IEP enrollment sits at 15%. The neighborhood around the school has only 13.9% of households with children, which means Peck Slip draws a meaningful share of its families from beyond immediate walking distance.
Neighborhood
The Financial District-Battery Park City area is one of Manhattan's wealthiest pockets, anchored by finance professionals and long-time downtown residents. Median household income is $192,111, the poverty rate is just 6.1%, and 82.7% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher. Only about 14% of neighborhood households include children, so Peck Slip serves a population that includes both longtime local families and a steady stream of commuters who have moved downtown in recent years.
Fulton St (2, 3) is about a 5-minute walk; Chambers St (J, Z) and Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall (4, 5, 6) are each about a 7-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
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) · 240 families responded (86% rate)
Racial & Ethnic Diversity
NYC DOE InfoHub · 2022-23
PTA Fundraising
Source: DOE Local Law 171 disclosure
Discipline
NYSED Student & Educator Database (2023-24)
Economic Need & Special Populations
How to get in, step by step
Pre-K
The Peck Slip School 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
The Peck Slip School 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.
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Frequently Asked Questions
- Is The Peck Slip School a good school?
- On Motley, The Peck Slip School earns an overall rating of 64/100 — 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 2 average.
- What grades does The Peck Slip School serve?
- The Peck Slip School serves grades Pre-K to 5.
- How do students get into The Peck Slip School?
- The Peck Slip School admits by zone — children who live in its attendance zone get a guaranteed seat.
- Is The Peck Slip School public, charter, or private?
- The Peck Slip School is a public school in NYC Community School District 2.
- What neighborhood is The Peck Slip School in?
- The Peck Slip School is in Financial District-Battery Park City, Manhattan.