The top reported proficiency rate is 88% in Science. The lowest is 53% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Big Flats School
Big Flats School sits on Maple Street in the town of Big Flats, New York, serving children from pre-kindergarten through fourth grade as part of the Horseheads Central School District. Because it stops at fourth grade, there is no graduation rate and no high school program data to discuss here; those measures belong to the district's upper schools.
The school's enrollment puts it in a moderate size range for an elementary building. Its student population is predominantly white, with smaller shares of Hispanic, multiracial, and Asian students. A modest share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which places Big Flats School at the lower end of economic disadvantage among elementary buildings in many New York contexts. Data on students with IEPs and English learners was not available in what was provided.
On the New York State Testing Program, tested third and fourth graders show math proficiency running somewhat ahead of ELA proficiency, with fourth graders outperforming third graders in both subjects. Placed against the other districts in Chemung County, the school's overall proficiency index sits in the top quartile of that four-district comparison set, clearly above the county median and the next closest district. That position is worth noting for a parent choosing among Chemung County options. The most recent fourth-grade science result, from an earlier tested year, was quite strong, with the large majority of students reaching proficiency. Trend data across years was not available in the provided records, so it is not possible to say whether scores have been moving up or down.
Chronic absenteeism data was not available, nor was discipline data or information about course access and staffing ratios. A parent who wants to understand attendance patterns or specific intervention programs would want to ask the school directly.
Big Flats as a place is auto-oriented and suburban in character, organized around the I-86 corridor rather than a walkable town center. Civic life clusters around the town's parks system, the community center on Maple Street, and the Big Flats Library on Canal Street. The Chemung River runs through town and supports outdoor recreation. Major employers nearby include Corning Incorporated, which operates an innovation and manufacturing support center in town, along with Arnot Mall, a range of big-box retailers, Guthrie Medical Services, and the Elmira-Corning Regional Airport. As publicly reported, Amazon was considering a distribution center in Big Flats as of late 2025. The town has been identified as among the more affordable small towns in New York, and housing values here sit well below the state median, making ownership more accessible than in most of New York. The market has seen meaningful appreciation recently. A large multifamily development known as The Hammocks at Big Flats has been proposed nearby, suggesting the area is in an active growth phase, though that project drew contested public hearings.
On the district side, families should be aware of a sustained period of budget pressure. Voters approved a substantial second-phase capital project in 2021 that is funding facility, technology, and security upgrades across the district, but it also introduced a phased property tax increase. The 2024-25 budget required a supermajority override of the state tax cap, which voters provided. Then the initial 2025-26 budget failed at the May vote, and a revised, lower-levy version passed in its place. The district publicly noted that maintaining current staffing and programs required significant levy support, and that staff reductions through attrition had already occurred over recent years. A parent tracking program stability or class sizes would want to follow district budget conversations closely.
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