Original Research by School Decision on Richmond Preparatory Charter School
Richmond Preparatory Charter School is a middle-grades charter serving students in grades 6 through 8 in Staten Island. The school opened in 2020 and is in the early phases of a planned upward expansion, adding a grade level each year; by the 2024-25 school year it had extended into 9th grade, meaning families who enroll can now keep a child through the start of high school rather than needing to transfer after 8th grade.
The defining feature of Richmond Preparatory is its computer-science pathway. Beginning in 6th grade, all students work toward the IC3 Digital Literacy Certification by 8th grade, learning programming and hardware fundamentals with increasing complexity. Once the school expands to serve high school grades, students will choose between a hardware or programming track and access a Monroe University-hosted Information Systems Program beginning in 10th grade, culminating in a CompTIA A+ industry certification. This is a concrete vocational credential built into the school's core model, not an elective add-on. For families seeking a middle grades program with a defined technical career pathway and early exposure to technology careers, this school offers something uncommon in the Staten Island landscape.
The school enrolls roughly equal cohorts across its three current grades. The student body is majority Hispanic and Black, with a meaningful representation of White and Asian students; a small number of students identify with two or more races or as American Indian or Alaska Native. The school does not publicly report rates for free-or-reduced-price lunch eligibility or the proportion of English learners, making it difficult to assess the full economic and linguistic profile of the enrollment.
Richmond Preparatory operates with a fully integrated, inclusive classroom model. Classes mix general education and special education students learning together at their own pace, and the school explicitly welcomes students with autism spectrum diagnoses and Individualized Education Programs. This inclusion-based approach is pedagogically distinct and appeals to families whose children have IEPs and whose parents want a mainstream setting without pull-out or separate track structures.
A notable strength in the county comparison: the school's chronic absenteeism rate sits in the top quartile among Richmond County's districts, meaning it has tighter attendance than most peers. Per-pupil spending is in the upper range for the county, reflecting the resources the school directs toward its students.
State testing proficiency data for the school was not available, so an assessment of academic performance relative to county benchmarks cannot be made. The school also does not yet have a graduation rate, since it currently serves grades through 8th grade and has not yet had a cohort progress through to grade 12. As the school expands upward, families may want to request classroom-level or assessment outcomes from the school directly to understand how students are progressing in core academics alongside the computer-science specialization.
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