NYC DOE ANNOUNCES ANNUAL CITYWIDE HIGH SCHOOL FAIR

The New York City Department of Education today announced its annual series of fall events to help students and their families choose a high school. The Department will host its annual Citywide High School Fair at Brooklyn Technical High School (29 Fort Greene Place) this Saturday, September 24, and Sunday, September 25, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Families also can attend borough high school fairs on October 22 and 23 and workshops in October to learn more about high school options and the admissions process. Individual schools will hold open houses for interested students in the weeks following the fair.

At the Citywide High School Fair this weekend, staff and students from the City’s public high schools will provide information and answer questions about their schools. The fair also will include two workshops about the high school admissions process and two workshops on how to apply to the City’s nine specialized high schools. The Directory of the New York City Public High Schools, 2011-2012, will be available, along with the Specialized High Schools Student Handbook. Interpretation services will be available in Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, French, Haitian Creole, Korean, Russian, Spanish, and Urdu.

Eighth- and ninth-grade students applying to high school this year are strongly encouraged to attend the fair. Seventh grade students who want to start learning about their high school options also are invited.

Additionally, the Department will host five borough high school fairs on Saturday, October 22, and Sunday, October 23, from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. These fairs will focus exclusively on schools in the boroughs where they are held. The locations for the fairs are as follows:

• Bronx – Theodore Roosevelt Educational Campus (500 East Fordham Road)
• Manhattan – Martin Luther King, Jr. Educational Campus (122 Amsterdam Avenue)
• Queens – Francis Lewis High School (58-20 Utopia Parkway)
• Brooklyn – Edward R. Murrow High School (1600 Avenue L)
• Staten Island – New Dorp High School (465 New Dorp Lane)

In October, the Department will offer workshops across the City about the high school admissions process. The schedule for these workshops will be available on the Department’s Web site (http://schools.nyc.gov/ChoicesEnrollment/High/Calendar).

Students who are interested in taking the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT), in order to qualify for one of the eight specialized testing schools, must see their guidance counselors before October 12 in order to register for the test. Students who wish to audition for LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and the Performing Arts must see their guidance counselors before October 28 in order to obtain an audition ticket.

Last June, seventh grade students received the Directory of the New York City Public High Schools, 2011-2012 and the Specialized High Schools Student Handbook, which introduced them to the admissions process and helped them begin to identify schools that match their educational goals and interests. The Department also hosted workshops for families about the high school admissions process over the summer.

High school applications will be available in mid-October and are due back to guidance counselors no later than December 2. More information about the high school admissions process, including a calendar of events, deadlines, and electronic copies of the high school publications, are available on the Department’s Web site at http://schools.nyc.gov/ChoicesEnrollment/High.