Original Research by School Decision on South Richmond High School Is/ps 25
South Richmond High School IS/PS 25 sits on Hylan Boulevard on Staten Island's South Shore, a stretch of the borough that is publicly reported as among its most suburban stretches: detached homes, residential streets oriented around cars, and a quieter pace than the denser neighborhoods to the north. The school is part of NYC Special Schools District 75, the New York City public school system's dedicated citywide district for students with significant disabilities, and that context defines almost everything about what this school is and who it serves.
The school spans pre-kindergarten through grade twelve, an unusually broad range that signals its purpose: serving students across a wide developmental and age span based on need rather than conventional grade progression. A meaningful share of enrollment carries no grade designation at all, which is common in District 75 schools where placements reflect individualized program assignments rather than standard promotion tracks. The student body is racially and ethnically diverse, with Black and Hispanic students each making up roughly equal and substantial shares, white students representing a smaller but present share, and the remainder reflecting a range of backgrounds. The great majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating that this is a school drawing heavily from lower-income households. Data on English learner enrollment and IEP rates were not available in the data provided, though given District 75's mission, one should expect that virtually all students are served under individualized education programs.
Standard state proficiency data and a four-year graduation rate are not reported here. That is not a gap in the usual sense. District 75 schools operate outside the conventional academic measurement framework that applies to general education schools because their students have disabilities that require individualized curricula, some academic and some focused on life skills and functional independence. Comparing this school to general education schools on a proficiency index would not be meaningful, and the absence of those figures reflects the school's nature, not a reporting failure.
At the district level, parents should know a few things. District 75 has adopted the NYC Reads literacy initiative, which brings a phonics-based, science-of-reading approach to reading instruction citywide. For District 75, publicly reported accounts note that implementation remains flexible to accommodate the spectrum of student need, from life-skills programming to grade-level academic curricula. That flexibility is deliberate and matters for families whose children sit at very different points on that spectrum. The district also faced a serious funding threat in late 2023, when schools were directed to absorb substantial budget cuts that would have affected paraprofessional staffing, extracurriculars, and supplies. Parent and advocate pressure led the city to reverse those cuts in early 2024. This episode is worth knowing about because paraprofessional support is often central to how District 75 students access their school day, and funding pressures in this space can directly touch service levels. A parent would be well-served to ask the school directly about current staffing ratios and program stability.
The broader District 75 system has been adding seats across boroughs to address known shortages and reduce long commutes for families. Staten Island has been identified in publicly reported planning documents as an area with seat pressures, so families on the South Shore navigating placements should ask about waitlists and travel times for specific programs.
The surrounding housing market is expensive. Home values in this zip code sit well above the state median and considerably above the national median, and rents have risen sharply in the past year. Staten Island's South Shore more broadly is auto-dependent, with parks, the borough's extensive greenbelt, and ferry access to Manhattan available but not within walking distance of most residential streets.
Program-specific course offerings were not available in the data. For families considering South Richmond, the most useful next step is direct conversation with the school about the specific program model available for a given child's IEP, class composition, transition services for older students, and how the school's span from pre-K through twelfth grade is structured in practice.
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