Original Research by School Decision on Choice Charter School
Choice Charter School, a public charter serving prekindergarten through fifth grade in the Mott Haven neighborhood of the Bronx, closed permanently in 2025. The school no longer accepts new students or operates as an enrollment option. Families with children who were enrolled there were required to transition to other charter or district schools, a process that New York State oversaw as part of its mandated wind-down procedures for charter closures.
Before its closure, Choice Charter School was the city's first Montessori public school, a pedagogical distinction that set it apart from traditional public classrooms. It drew a student population that was predominantly Hispanic and Black, with a student body of roughly two hundred. The enrollment spread relatively evenly across kindergarten through fifth grade, reflecting a small, intentional school structure.
The school's academic record presented a sharp contradiction. Student proficiency in mathematics and reading fell well below New York City and state averages. The school ranked in the bottom tier of New York elementary schools over its final years, a performance trajectory that factored into closure discussions. A parent evaluating Choice Charter would have needed to weigh this weak academic showing against the school's Montessori instructional model and intimate scale, but the closure decision removed that choice entirely.
Per-pupil spending at the school was notably high, placing it in the upper range among Bronx County districts. Despite that resource level, the school did not translate spending into strong student outcomes. Chronic absenteeism was also a concern, at a rate that fell in the bottom quartile among county districts, suggesting significant attendance challenges that may have compounded academic difficulty.
Data on free-or-reduced-price lunch eligibility, special education enrollment, and English learner populations were not publicly reported for the school, so the full economic and service-delivery context is incomplete. State standardized testing results for the school were not available in the dataset, though web-researched sources indicate that proficiency rates in both subjects lagged citywide benchmarks considerably.
The closure reflects broader authorizer and policy scrutiny of charter schools that combine high per-student spending with low student achievement. For families in Community School District 7 who were seeking an alternative school model or smaller setting, the loss of Choice Charter removed a neighborhood option. Affected students were transferred under state procedures designed to preserve records and support placement, but the school itself no longer operates.
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