PS/MS 42 R VERNAM

PS/MS 42 R VERNAM is one of the reasonably sized primary schools in ARVERNE, New York, overseen by NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #27, with 627 students on its rolls from grades pre-K through 8. That puts it 42% above the typical public school in New York, which averages around 443 students.

NEW YORK CITY GEOGRAPHIC DISTRICT #27 comprises 63 schools with combined enrollment of 39,209 students; PS/MS 42 R VERNAM is among them.

On demographics, PS/MS 42 R VERNAM shows that 62% of the student body identifies as Black. The remainder consists of 32% Hispanic, 2% multiracial. By comparison, Queens County as a whole is about 17% Black, so the school skews visibly more Black than its surroundings.

Looking at school resources, PS/MS 42 R VERNAM records 50 full-time-equivalent teachers, putting the student-to-teacher ratio at about 12.5:1. That tracks the state average closely. About 93% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, a commonly cited indicator of low-income enrollment. By comparison, Queens County runs at roughly 77%, so the school's eligibility rate is meaningfully above the surrounding baseline.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, PS/MS 42 R VERNAM tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 40.7% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 29.1%.

Across the wider county, the surrounding county (Queens County) reports that the typical household earns roughly $86,136 per year, about 36% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and roughly 10% of residents live below the federal poverty line. In all, Queens County runs 392 public schools (combined enrollment of about 268,205 students), of which PS/MS 42 R VERNAM is one.

The closest other public school is GOLDIE MAPLE ACADEMY, roughly 0.4 miles away. Counting just inside five miles, 8 other public schools cluster around PS/MS 42 R VERNAM. Among the 9 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), PS/MS 42 R VERNAM ranks 5th on composite proficiency, behind the local average of 36.0%.

The campus sits in a city-core setting.

Five-year trend. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at PS/MS 42 R VERNAM has decreased 5%, going from 663 students in 2018 to 627 in 2025. Over the same period, the Black share fell from 73% to 62%. The student-to-teacher ratio widened from 10.9:1 in 2018 to 12.5:1 today.

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