PS 16 NANCY DEBENEDITTIS SCHOOL (THE)

PS 16 NANCY DEBENEDITTIS SCHOOL (THE) is a big elementary campus in CORONA, New York, overseen by NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #24. The school hosts 931 students in grades K through 5. Enrollment runs roughly 110% larger than the state mean of about 443.

NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #24 runs 57 schools in total, collectively educating 48,008 students. PS 16 NANCY DEBENEDITTIS SCHOOL (THE) is one of those campuses.

Demographically, PS 16 NANCY DEBENEDITTIS SCHOOL (THE) shows that the student body is overwhelmingly Hispanic (98%). That is meaningfully more Hispanic than the county at large, where the share is closer to 28%.

Looking at the economic backdrop, Staff filings list 76 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 12.3:1 students per teacher. That tracks the state average closely. An estimated 97% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. By comparison, Queens County runs at roughly 77%, so the school's eligibility rate is somewhat above the surrounding baseline.

After controlling for student poverty, PS 16 NANCY DEBENEDITTIS SCHOOL (THE) performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 39.4%, the actual is 25.5%, a residual of -13.9 points.

In the surrounding community, ACS estimates for Queens County put median household income runs about $86,136, 36% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 10%. Across Queens County's 392 public schools (combined enrollment of about 268,205 students), PS 16 NANCY DEBENEDITTIS SCHOOL (THE) is one campus in the mix.

PIONEER ACADEMY is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.2 miles from this campus. Within five miles, there are 8 other public schools. Among the 8 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), PS 16 NANCY DEBENEDITTIS SCHOOL (THE) ranks 6th on composite proficiency, behind the local average of 33.0%.

Geographically, the school is in an urban area.

Trend over the last 7 years. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at PS 16 NANCY DEBENEDITTIS SCHOOL (THE) has contracted 41%, going from 1,573 students in 2018 to 931 in 2025. Over the same period, the Asian share edged down from 7% to 1%. Class-load math has pulled in: from 15.6:1 in 2018 to 12.3:1 in 2025.

On allk12, recent activity here tends to focus on pickup logistics, teacher feedback, and after-school programs. Members of the school community can share what they know.