The top reported proficiency rate is 99% in Social studies. The lowest is 36% in Science.
Original Research by School Decision on John F Kennedy Intermediate School
John F. Kennedy Intermediate School sits on Lake Avenue in Deer Park, a hamlet in the Town of Babylon on Long Island's western Suffolk County. It serves grades three through five within the Deer Park Union Free School District, drawing students from a community that is publicly described as blue-collar and community-oriented, with midcentury suburban neighborhoods running alongside the commercial strip of Deer Park Avenue and the Tanger Outlets. The school's own building got flooring work as part of a set of capital improvements the district's Board of Education approved in 2022, alongside a new security vestibule at the high school and roof replacement work elsewhere in the district.
The student body is notably diverse. Hispanic students make up the largest single group, followed by white, Black, and Asian students, with multiracial students rounding out the rest. Close to half of all students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which places this school in a genuinely mixed economic setting. Counts for students with IEPs and English learners were not available in the data provided, so parents with children in those categories may want to ask the school directly about support structures.
On state assessments, the picture is mixed and worth reading carefully. In math, proficiency rates across the three grade levels tested land in a similar range, and when set against districts across Suffolk County, the school's overall proficiency index sits above the midpoint among the county's districts. That is a meaningful position in a county with many relatively affluent communities, and it reflects a reasonable academic baseline for a school with this demographic profile. ELA results show somewhat more variation by grade, with third grade performing comparably to math and fourth grade trailing more noticeably before fifth grade recovers some ground. Science, tested only in fifth grade, shows a weaker result, well below the math and ELA figures, and this is an area where a parent may want to have a conversation with the school about instructional focus and support.
One aspect of the assessment picture that merits a closer look is participation. Third grade saw the strongest participation in both math and ELA. By fifth grade, participation in both subjects and in science had dropped to rates that leave a meaningful share of students untested. Low participation can affect how proficiency rates should be read, since students who opt out are not distributed randomly across the performance spectrum in most cases. The school and district can speak to this directly.
Multi-year trend data was not available for this school, so there is no basis here to characterize whether results are improving, holding, or declining. A graduation rate does not apply, since the school serves only elementary grades. Program offerings specific to this building were not included in the data provided.
Housing in Deer Park carries home values well above the statewide benchmark and considerably above the national one, though still below much of Long Island's higher-priced corridors. The Suffolk County market as of mid-2026 is showing more active supply than a year prior, with days on market ticking up and pending sales sharply lower year over year, suggesting a market that has cooled somewhat from its recent peak without becoming a buyer's market outright. Families buying into the Deer Park district should be aware that the 2025-26 budget passed with a tax levy increase, and the projected property tax rate rose from the prior year, a real line item in any housing cost calculation.
Deer Park itself is car-dependent, organized around highway access rather than a walkable center. The LIRR's Ronkonkoma Branch station in the Baywood area of the hamlet offers commuter rail service toward Manhattan, which is a practical anchor for households with city-based employment. The Town of Babylon had a revitalization planning process underway as of early 2024, focused on the commercial corridors and walkability, though implementation was still in progress at that point.
For a family with children entering grades three through five, JFK Intermediate offers a diverse peer environment, a proficiency position that holds its own within Suffolk County, and a community setting that is working through its own reinvention. The science results and the participation patterns in the upper grades are the clearest areas to press the school on.
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