LIGHTHOUSE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Set in FAR ROCKAWAY, New York, LIGHTHOUSE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is a minimally staffed elementary school, operated by NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #27. It works with 157 students across grades pre-K through 5. That puts it 65% smaller than the typical public school in New York, which averages around 443 students.

Within NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #27, which oversees 63 schools and 39,209 students, LIGHTHOUSE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is one campus in the system.

For racial and ethnic makeup, LIGHTHOUSE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL lists that 54% of students identify as Black, with the remaining enrollment distributed across several groups. The remainder breaks down as 37% Hispanic, 3% White, 3% multiracial. The wider county runs roughly 17% Black, putting the school's mix visibly more Black than the area baseline.

Looking at the economic backdrop, The school lists 18 full-time-equivalent teachers, for a student-teacher ratio near 8.6:1. The state averages around 12.8:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. Roughly 96% of students at LIGHTHOUSE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. By comparison, Queens County runs at roughly 77%, so the school's eligibility rate is above the surrounding baseline.

With demographic context factored in, LIGHTHOUSE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 39.6%, the actual is 22.3%, a residual of -17.3 points.

Around the school, census data for Queens County shows median household earnings sit near $86,136, roughly 36% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 10% of residents live below the federal poverty line. LIGHTHOUSE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is one of 392 public schools in Queens County (combined enrollment of about 268,205 students).

PS 43 is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.3 miles from this campus. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. On composite proficiency, LIGHTHOUSE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL comes 8th of 9 in the immediate cluster, beneath the nearby-schools average of 41.7%.

The school occupies a city-core site.

Five-year trend. Over the past 7-year window, the student count contracted 27%: 216 students in 2018 compared to 157 in 2025. Black enrollment moved from 61% to 54% across the same window.

In the discussion threads here, the feed for LIGHTHOUSE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL typically covers open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.