{"id":221125,"date":"2026-05-05T21:00:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T21:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/221125\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T21:00:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T21:00:07","slug":"nyc-to-open-hip-hop-high-school-specialized-programs-for-students-with-disabilities-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/221125\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC to open hip-hop high school, specialized programs for students with disabilities"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York City is opening five new public schools<\/a> in the fall, including a high school focused on hip-hop.<\/p>\n

The schools will be spread across the Bronx and western Queens, with a priority on neighborhoods with overcrowded classrooms. Two of the schools are for students with significant disabilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach school brings something unique: different focus areas, grade levels and areas of specialization,\u201d Chancellor Kamar Samuels said at the 2026 New Schools Fair on Tuesday in downtown Manhattan. \u201cBut together they reflect a shared, fundamental belief at New York City Public Schools \u2014 there is something for every student and every family.\u201d<\/p>\n

The latest schools join a growing list of 16 programs that have launched in recent years \u2014 seven this school year<\/a> and nine last school year<\/a> \u2014 despite there being fewer students to go around. Citywide, enrollment fell by 2.4%<\/a> last fall, worsening years of pandemic-era declines. Local education officials have responded by closing or merging programs<\/a> that have become too small to sustain.<\/p>\n

Officials have explained the seeming contradiction as a strategy to recruit families to public schools by providing them with more choices. It also comes as the city faces a deadline to lower class sizes as required by state law<\/a>, which will require more physical space in pockets of the five boroughs where schools are bursting at the seams.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew schools give us a chance to think, \u2018What else does the city need?’\u201d Danielle Giunta, the chancellor\u2019s first deputy, told reporters. \u201cWhat is the feedback we\u2019re hearing that parents want and would be interested in staying with us, coming back to us?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNew schools [are] part of the conversation and broader strategy work that we\u2019re doing to meet all of those things that sometimes feel like they\u2019re in conflict,\u201d Giunta said. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to keep our families heavily invested in our public schools, because we believe in them profoundly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bronx School of Hip-Hop<\/p>\n

The Bronx School of Hip-Hop<\/a> is opening in Claremont with between 115 and 125 ninth graders, adding grade levels each year until it\u2019s a full high school. It\u2019s the birthplace of hip-hop\u2019s first public school focused on the music and culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the core of what we\u2019re talking about here is hip-hop culture being used as a vehicle for learning,\u201d said Jason Reyes, the school\u2019s founding principal. \u201cThis is not just performing arts. It\u2019s that and students really digging deep into literary analysis. A good example would be, I\u2019m looking at Kendrick Lamar\u2019s album, \u2018To Pimp A Butterfly,\u2019<\/a> and I\u2019m comparing that to, let\u2019s say, \u2018Catcher in the Rye,\u2019 understanding rhetorical devices.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd mathematics, you might see students understanding pattern recognition in music, and then creating an algebraic equation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reyes said students will graduate ready to go into the billion-dollar hip-hop industry or apply to college. As the first cohort of students get older, he\u2019s looking to partner with CUNY\u2019s Lehman College and Bronx Community College<\/a> to offer college credit in areas such as audio engineering, video production and graphics, and business. The Bronx School of Hip-Hop counts Melle Mel<\/a>, Grandmaster Caz<\/a> and Special Ed<\/a> among its advisers, and is aiming to team up with more artists after the school opens its doors.<\/p>\n

Through the hip-hop curriculum, the principal hopes to attract students who struggle with attendance or concentration in the classroom: \u201cStudents are disengaged when they don\u2019t see themselves in the learning,\u201d Reyes said. \u201cThis school is designed for this generation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schools for students with significant disabilities, budding artists<\/p>\n

The other new school in the borough is the Bronx School of Arts & Exploration, a District 75 school in Highbridge for students in kindergarten through eighth grade with significant disabilities. The school places an emphasis on the arts and helps young people develop their independence.<\/p>\n

In Queens, the city is opening several schools: the Academy of Cultural Excellence, a prekindergarten and elementary school in Long Island City with a focus on projects and the arts; Queens Academy for Innovative Learning, in Astoria, another District 75 school for students with significant disabilities in grades six through 12 focused on STEM; and West Q Elementary, an elementary school in Woodside centered around neighborhood-based projects and multilingualism.<\/p>\n

The launch of two District 75 schools comes amid a systemwide push to offer special education programs to students with disabilities who might have otherwise enrolled in private schools, with their tuition funded by city taxpayers<\/a>, a line item in the city budget that has been ballooning in recent years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis school is being designed for students on the autism spectrum, so really tight routines and structures,\u201d said Jenna O\u2019Shaughnessy, the founding principal of Queens Academy for Innovative Learning. \u201cOur mascot is going to be a \u2018Royal Raptor.\u2019 The reason we picked the Royal Raptor is because raptors are known for their intense focus and their determination, which is exactly what our students will need.\u201d<\/p>\n

No school on artificial intelligence<\/p>\n

Notably absent from this year\u2019s fair was a planned school in downtown Manhattan focused on artificial intelligence, Next Generation Technology High School. Samuels pulled the proposal last week<\/a> amid backlash over its embrace of AI and screened admissions process, though officials have shown interest in reviving those plans after a systemwide AI policy is in place.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always want to make sure that we\u2019re listening,\u201d Shawn Rux, who leads the department\u2019s Office of New Schools, told reporters at the fair. \u201cSo we\u2019ll continue to reflect, and we\u2019ll continue to consider what works best moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York City is opening five new public schools in the fall, including a high school focused on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[87152,60542,87153,41579,9,24,3059,56,63,65,64,209,2585],"class_list":["post-221125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-bronx-school","tag-elementary-school","tag-jason-reyes","tag-kamar-samuels","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-public-schools","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-public-schools","tag-students"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}