Original Research by School Decision on Brilla Pax Charter School
Brilla Pax Charter School is a small elementary network serving kindergarten through third grade in the Bronx, with a student body drawn almost entirely from the local Hispanic community. The school operates as part of the Brilla College Preparatory Charter Schools network and sits in a unique position within Bronx County's public school landscape: enrollment is concentrated in early grades, so state proficiency testing data and graduation metrics do not apply to the school.
What does apply is attendance. Brilla Pax reports a very high chronic absenteeism rate that places it in the bottom quartile among Bronx County districts. A parent may want to look into this further with the school, as chronic absenteeism at any grade level can affect learning momentum. The school itself may be able to explain what drives this rate and what supports or outreach exist around attendance.
The school operates under a renewed charter from SUNY that runs through the 2029-30 school year, giving the network operational certainty. More notably for families, Brilla Pax is transitioning toward a full K-8 configuration, and the network has built an explicit pathway: eighth-grade graduates gain returning-student preference at Vertex Partnership Academies, a tuition-free Bronx charter high school authorized as an International Baccalaureate World School offering all three IB programs. This creates a continuous free pathway from kindergarten through high school for families who choose to stay in the network.
The school has also relocated to a dedicated campus, moving from a shared building toward a site with room to grow. Enrollment across the K-3 grades is small, with roughly equal cohorts at each level. The vast majority of students are Hispanic; other racial and ethnic groups are represented in very small numbers.
Data on free-or-reduced-price-lunch eligibility, special education, and English learner populations were not available in the school's public reporting, so a parent interested in understanding how the school serves students with disabilities or emerging bilinguals should contact the school directly. Academic performance results for early grades are not reported through state testing at these grade levels, so there is no standardized proficiency data to review at the K-3 stage.
See more original research from School Decision →