Suffern Senior High School, Suffern NY

Original Research by School Decision on Suffern Senior High School

Suffern Senior High School is a four-year public high school serving the village of Suffern and surrounding communities in Rockland County, on the state line between New York and New Jersey, northwest of New York City. The school sits on a suburban campus outside the downtown core at Viola Road in the Ramapo area.

The student body reflects the diversity of the region. About four in ten students come from Spanish-speaking households or identify as Hispanic. White students comprise a similar share, with smaller populations of Asian and Black students. A substantial portion of the enrollment—roughly a third—qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating a working- and middle-class base. Overall enrollment holds steady for a high school of this type in a mature suburban village.

State assessment data and graduation rates for Suffern Senior High were not available in the records, so a parent looking for how the school's students perform on Regents exams or the four-year graduation rate should contact the school or district directly. Similarly, chronic absenteeism and other school-environment metrics were not provided. This gap is not unusual for schools in the region, but it is worth asking the high school to walk you through those measures if academic outcomes are a priority in your decision.

The town of Suffern itself is a small, historically rooted village with a walkable downtown spine along Lafayette Avenue, anchored by shops, restaurants, and a train station that connects to both NJ Transit and Metro-North commuter rail. Good Samaritan Hospital is the largest employer, though health care broadly drives the local economy. The village borders Harriman State Park, offering outdoor access. Housing costs have risen notably in recent years, with median home values and rental rates both climbing. Homeownership sits around two-thirds, and most residents drive.

At the district level, Suffern Central School District has made a structural shift beginning in the 2024-25 school year, reorganizing elementary schools into a grade-banded model (PreK-2 in two buildings, 3-5 in two others) following the closure of Viola Elementary. This reflects a decline in elementary enrollment as families opt for private and religious schools. The district has also adopted literacy instruction grounded in the Science of Reading across elementary grades and operates a 50-50 two-way English-Spanish dual language enrichment program starting in kindergarten, with plans to expand it. These curriculum choices shape the academic culture and are worth understanding if your family values specific instructional approaches or bilingual education.

The district's budgets have consistently passed voter approval, with stable property tax increases held at or below the state cap, which suggests a stable financial and political environment for families thinking about long-term enrollment.

For families considering Suffern Senior High, the main gap is concrete performance data. The school's course catalog, Advanced Placement offerings, career and technical pathways, and extracurricular programs are questions worth taking directly to the school's website or calling the main office, as those details were not captured in the available records. What you do have is a sense of a school serving a diverse, working-to-middle-class cohort in a small, historically rooted community with good transit access and reasonable local amenities, though in a region where housing costs are rising.

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Academic performance

How students graduate and prepare for what comes next.

Graduation rate (ACGR)

95.0%Cohort of 336 students · Class of 2021

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.

Advanced Placement & IB

28 subjects offered · 2023-24

Each card is one AP or IB subject. The headline number is the share of students scoring 3 or higher on the exam — the threshold for college credit at most universities. The bar below each rate shows the underlying distribution across performance levels.

Score:12· no credit345· extremely well qualified

Math and Computer Science

Calculus AB

35 tested

48.6%

scored 3 or higher

Calculus BC

35 tested

80.0%

scored 3 or higher

Computer Science A

13 tested · Grade 10

69.2%

scored 3 or higher

Computer Science Principles

34 tested · Grade 10

76.5%

scored 3 or higher

Statistics

38 tested · Grade 10

65.8%

scored 3 or higher

Sciences

Biology

15 tested · Grade 10

73.3%

scored 3 or higher

Chemistry

36 tested · Grade 10

94.4%

scored 3 or higher

Environmental Science

51 tested

76.5%

scored 3 or higher

Physics 1

44 tested

70.5%

scored 3 or higher

Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism

20 tested

75.0%

scored 3 or higher

Physics C: Mechanics

20 tested

90.0%

scored 3 or higher

English

Research

13 tested

92.3%

scored 3 or higher

Seminar

39 tested · Grade 10

100.0%

scored 3 or higher

History and Social Sciences

European History

13 tested

100.0%

scored 3 or higher

Psychology

18 tested

77.8%

scored 3 or higher

U.S. History

59 tested

96.6%

scored 3 or higher

World Languages and Cultures

French Language and Culture

5 tested

80.0%

scored 3 or higher

Italian Language and Culture

6 tested

50.0%

scored 3 or higher

Spanish Language and Culture

14 tested · Grade 10

85.7%

scored 3 or higher

Arts

Art History

14 tested

92.9%

scored 3 or higher

Music Theory

8 tested · Grade 10

0.0%

scored 3 or higher

Studio Art Drawing

2 tested

0.0%

scored 3 or higher

Other

African American Studies

13 tested

92.3%

scored 3 or higher

Language and Comp

76 tested

78.9%

scored 3 or higher

Literature and Comp

44 tested

93.2%

scored 3 or higher

Studio Art 2d Design

9 tested

100.0%

scored 3 or higher

U S Government and Politics

43 tested

88.4%

scored 3 or higher

World History

48 tested · Grade 10

97.9%

scored 3 or higher

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
Ela	421	81.0%
Social Studies	358	88.0%
Science	350	58.0%
Math	12	33.0%

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.