HARVEY AUSTIN SCHOOL #97

HARVEY AUSTIN SCHOOL #97, a medium-sized elementary-level community in BUFFALO, New York, operated by BUFFALO CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT, caters to 487 students, covering grades pre-K through 8.

HARVEY AUSTIN SCHOOL #97 is one of 61 schools operated by BUFFALO CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT, a district that caters to 29,425 students overall.

Demographically, HARVEY AUSTIN SCHOOL #97 reports that 52% of students identify as Black, with the remaining enrollment distributed across several groups. Beyond that, the school logs 32% Asian, 9% Hispanic, 4% multiracial, 2% White. That is considerably more Black than the county at large, where the share is closer to 13%.

In terms of school funding signals, On paper, HARVEY AUSTIN SCHOOL #97 has 56 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 8.7:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 12.8:1 average. Roughly 95% of students at HARVEY AUSTIN SCHOOL #97 qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. By comparison, Erie County runs at roughly 51%, so the school's eligibility rate is somewhat above the surrounding baseline.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), HARVEY AUSTIN SCHOOL #97 is in the bottom 10% of New York public schools. The BeatsExpectations model predicts schools with this FRL share to land around 40.0%; HARVEY AUSTIN SCHOOL #97 posts 13.9%, -26.0 points below that line.

Across the wider county, Erie County reports that median household income runs about $72,839, roughly 38% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 9% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Across Erie County's 226 public schools (combined enrollment of about 122,519 students), HARVEY AUSTIN SCHOOL #97 is one campus in the mix.

Nearest neighbor: BUILD COMMUNITY SCHOOL, around 0.5 miles off. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around HARVEY AUSTIN SCHOOL #97. Ranking that nearby cluster on reported proficiency puts HARVEY AUSTIN SCHOOL #97 at 5th of 5; the average score across the group is 35.7%.

The campus sits in an urban setting.

Trend over the last 7 years. Over the past 7-year window, the student count decreased 20%: 612 students in 2018 compared to 487 in 2025. The Asian share of enrollment climbed from 4% to 32% over that span. Class-load math has narrowed: from 12.0:1 in 2018 to 8.7:1 in 2025.

On this page, members of the HARVEY AUSTIN SCHOOL #97 community share and discuss classroom updates, athletics, and weather closures. Members of the school community can share what they know.