Downstate counties have highest rates of students in private schools. Check your district

The debate over school choice — public funds following students to private schools — is alive and well nationally, but in New York plenty of families fork over their own money for private school tuition without public dollars offsetting the cost.

Counties with the highest percentages of students attending private schools are mostly concentrated downstate, where many families pay high property tax bills along with private school tuition: Rockland with 46%; Orange, 24%; Sullivan, 11%; Nassau, 11% and Westchester, 10%. New York City had 18%.

In Westchester, Rockland and Putnam, as of 2021-22, 16 of 54 districts had private school attendance rates greater than 10%. Twenty-two districts had rates less than 5%, (excluding six "special act" districts that don't have any students go to private schools because they were created by the state to serve students with special needs).

Many factors contribute to rates of private school attendance: the proximity and accessibility of private schools; religious traditions or traditions of subsequent generations in a family attending the same school; dissatisfaction with public schools or concerns, however valid, over a public school's image.

Whatever the reason, educators understand it's a personal choice for families.

"Geography matters," said White Plains Superintendent Joe Ricca, noting that White Plains families have many school options. "So the opportunity to be able to select independent or parochial schools is certainly greater depending upon where you live in the state, and in our area you have a lot of opportunity."

In White Plains those opportunities mean that 15% of the district's school-age children went to private schools in 2021-22, the 42nd highest rate in the state out of almost 700 districts.

"One of the things that, you know, we're always supportive of is our families making those choices," Ricca said.

Interest grows in school choice

Thirty-two states allow public dollars to follow students, in various ways, to private schools, according to FutureEd, a think tank at Georgetown University. But New York is not one of them.

In New York, the Democrat-controlled state Legislature has little interest in public financing of private schools. So the options before parents are their local public schools, public charter schools, homeschooling, paying for private schools or paying for a neighboring public school district.

State Sen. Shelley Mayer, D-Yonkers, chair of the Senate education committee, said there isn't an appetite in New York for public money going toward private education. Mayer said there is support for parents to choose what school is best for their kids, but "we can't have our public schools fall apart." She took issue with referring to the concept of paying for private schools with public money as "school choice," as it's frequently called.

Mayer said the state's first priority is making sure public schools are funded appropriately, and she did not anticipate New York considering legislation that would allow public money to go toward private education (outside of limited circumstances).

But the pandemic, subsequent closures of many public schools and a widespread dislike of remote learning sparked interest in school choice across the country.

David Laska, director of communications for the New York Republican State Committee, said there is substantial desire in New York for private schools to have access to tax dollars. But with Democratic control in Albany, "there are major political roadblocks on the way to actually delivering school choice to New Yorkers."

"The school choice movement has being going on for decades, but this is, I think, a once in a generation moment for school choice for a number of factors," Laska said. He pointed to pandemic-related frustrations with public schools and "radical political philosophies" around race and gender being introduced in schools.

A wide range, but a few standouts

State data for the 2021-22 school year, the most recent year available, shows private school enrollment rates ran the gamut. Many districts across New York had no students or just a few in private schools. On the other end of the scale, a few districts, including those with large Orthodox and Hasidic communities, saw majorities of students in private schools.

The Kyras Joel district in Orange County had the highest percentage of students who attend private schools in the state — just under 98%, according to the data, reported to the state along with other enrollment data the first Wednesday in each October. The district, which has one public school, was created to serve students with disabilities, while other students in the district attend private yeshivas.

Then there's East Ramapo, which had the second highest percentage: 76%. Over 30,400 of its almost 40,000 students attended private schools, mainly Orthodox and Hasidic Jewish yeshivas. Most of its over 9,400 public school students are children of color and considered economically disadvantaged. Many are English Language Learners.

Suffern ranks second in the Lower Hudson Valley — and 10th in the state — with over 28% of its students attending private schools in 21-22. While the district's overall population has grown, its public school enrollment has dropped while more students attend Orthodox and Hasidic Jewish yeshivas.

Greenburgh had the third highest percentage of students attending private schools in the region, over 22%, which represented the highest percentage not related to a growing Orthodox population. The district declined to comment.

Most districts in the state have much lower percentages.

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More private school attendance in Lower Hudson

About 64% of all districts in New York, or 436 out of 686 districts, had rates of private school enrollment of 5% or less. Eighty-eight percent of districts had fewer than 10% of their students attend private schools.

In 107 districts, less than 1% of students attended private schools.

Overall, some 360,000 of 2,809,000 students attended private schools in 2021-22.

In the Lower Hudson, districts typically sees higher percentages of students attend private schools, but it varies from community to community.

In Elmsford, almost 16% of students attended private schools — the 40th highest percentage in the state. Superintendent Ronald Gonzalez noted in a statement that the district is small, with only 178 students in private schools in 2021-22, compared to 945 in public schools.

With 19% of its students attending private schools in 2021-22, Harrison had the 27th highest percentage in the state. But that percentage declined every year from 2013-14, when it was 24.7%, to 18% in 2022-23, according to data provided by the district.

Harrison has a history of families sending their kids to the same private schools they attended, but "that trend has changed over time as the quality of schools has changed," said Superintendent Louis Wool. The district no longer sees the same drop-off in enrollment when students transition to middle school and high school, he said.

"We actually see a lot of kids who still sometimes leave and end up coming back," Wool said.

On the other end of the spectrum, 22 school districts in the Lower Hudson saw less than 5% of students attend private schools in 2021-22.

One was Ardsley, where Superintendent Ryan Schoenfeld said the district's low percentage of private school students, 2.5%, can be attributed to the fact that many families move to Ardsley for the schools. Though many families could probably afford to pay for private school on top of high taxes in the area, Ardsley has long been a destination for the quality of its public schools, Schoenfeld said.

"There are high expectations here," Schoenfeld said.

Private school rates higher in more diverse districts

In Westchester, Rockland and Putnam, smaller, less diverse districts tend to see lower percentages of their students opt for private school. Those districts also tend to have higher graduation rates than districts that saw more kids go to private schools.

Among the 12 districts that had private school attendance rates above the statewide average, eight had student populations largely made up of students of color. Four of those districts also had graduation rates below the state average of 87%.

Here are the districts in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties that had the highest private-school attendance rates in 2021-22:

• East Ramapo: 76%, second in the state

• Suffern: 28%, 10th in the state

• Greenburgh: 22%, 17th in the state

• Garrison: 19%, 26th in the state

• Harrison: 19%, 27th in the state

• Mount Vernon: 16%, 33rd in the state

• Elmsford: Almost 16%, 40th in the state

• White Plains: 15%, 42nd in the state

• New Rochelle: 15%, 43rd in the state

• Rye: Just under 15%, 44th in the state

• Yonkers: 14%, 46th in the state

• Mamaroneck: 13%, 50th in the state

These districts in Westchester, Rockland and Putnam had the lowest percentages of students attending private schools:

• South Orangetown: Under 2%, 503rd in the state

• Putnam Valley: 2%, 435th in the state

• Ardsley: 2%, 432nd in the state

• Edgemont: 2%, 426th in the state

• Brewster: Almost 3%, 399th in the state

Contact Diana Dombrowski at ddombrowski@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @domdomdiana.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: NY private school attendance enrollment rate statistics 2021-22