Birchwood School, West Nyack NY - Test Scores & Data

Original Research by School Decision on Birchwood School

Birchwood School sits on Sickletown Road in West Nyack, a suburban hamlet in Rockland County roughly eighteen miles north of Manhattan. It is classified as a special education school, operating under the Clarkstown Central School District and serving students from kindergarten through twelfth grade. That classification shapes almost everything a parent needs to understand about this place before anything else is said.

The school enrolls a small number of students across all grade levels, with individual grades often counting only a handful of children. White students make up the largest share of the student body, followed by Hispanic students, with smaller Black and multiracial populations also represented. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch. IEP and English learner counts were not reported in the data provided, though the school's special education designation strongly suggests that students with individualized education programs make up the core population served. A parent would want to speak directly with the school about its specific population, eligibility criteria, and program model, since the data here does not detail those.

State testing data appears in the record for grades three through eight across math, ELA, and science, but meaningful proficiency figures are largely unavailable. Most grade-level cells were suppressed by the state, which happens when the number of tested students is small enough that reporting a rate would risk identifying individual children. A few cells show no students tested at all for a given grade. This pattern is entirely consistent with how a small, specialized population appears in state accountability systems: very few students in any tested grade, many of whom may take alternate assessments rather than the standard New York State Testing Program, and state privacy rules that suppress the rest. The proficiency index computed from what is reported places Birchwood in the bottom position relative to districts in Rockland County, but that comparison carries almost no meaning for a special education school serving a fundamentally different population under different goals. A parent should not read that figure as a performance verdict.

A graduation rate was not available in the data, and the chronic absenteeism rate was likewise absent.

On the facilities side, voters approved a major capital bond in late 2024 covering HVAC, windows, flooring, and electrical upgrades across Clarkstown's elementary schools and Birchwood specifically. The work is structured to be tax-neutral, timed to offset expiring prior debt, with construction expected to run from 2026 through the late part of the decade. That is a concrete and documented infrastructure investment families weighing this school should factor in. District budgets have passed with solid voter support in recent years alongside modest, steady tax levy increases, a relevant detail for anyone thinking about housing costs in the area.

West Nyack itself is a largely built-out, auto-dependent suburb. The hamlet center along West Nyack Road is currently undergoing a multi-phase public revitalization that is adding sidewalks, lighting, stormwater infrastructure to address longstanding flooding, and a new bus stop, though the area has no passenger rail. The Palisades Center mall anchors local employment. Home values run well above both state and national medians, and the monthly carrying cost of ownership is steep relative to national income benchmarks, a reality that defines the housing market a family would be entering.

Because program details, staff-to-student ratios, specific therapeutic or instructional models, and transition planning practices were not available in the data, anyone seriously considering Birchwood should request that information directly from the school and from the district's special education office.

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Academic performance

State test results and graduation outcomes.

Graduation rate (ACGR)

Not publicly reportedCohort of 4 students · Class of 2021

The federal source does not publish a graduation rate for cohorts this small. The cohort size is shown for context.

How this school compares to all schools in this state

Each dot is one school’s SY 2020-21 graduation rate, binned by integer rate. Taller columns mean more schools at that rate. This school is highlighted.

1,253 schools plotted. 14 additional schools' rates are federally suppressed and not shown. Data: EDFacts SY 2020-21.

New York Regents Exams

4 courses reported · 2024-25

End-of-course exams required for a New York Regents diploma. Each row shows the cohort size and the share of students scoring at the proficient level or higher.

Course	Students tested	% proficient
Science	9	78.0%
Ela	8	88.0%
Social Studies	8	88.0%
Math	5	60.0%

Math

Grade 50%

School 0% · District 69% · ▼ 69 pts below district

▼ 51 pts below state median · ▼ 53 pts below county median

Grade 70%

School 0% · District 59% · ▼ 59 pts below district

▼ 53 pts below state median · ▼ 26 pts below county median

English language arts

Grade 50%

School 0% · District 70% · ▼ 70 pts below district

▼ 54 pts below state median · ▼ 57 pts below county median

Grade 70%

School 0% · District 55% · ▼ 55 pts below district

▼ 47 pts below state median · ▼ 27 pts below county median

Science

Grade 50%

School 0% · District 57% · ▼ 57 pts below district

▼ 42 pts below state median · ▼ 44 pts below county median

This schoolCLARKSTOWN CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.