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A network of schools that exclusively serves newly arrived immigrants will be getting its first 6-12 school.
The new school, known as Queens International, won approval to open its doors this fall, following hours of debate during a contentious public meeting Wednesday evening.
Members of Ridgewood’s I.S. 77, the middle school it will share a building with, said the campus previously struggled with another school temporarily housed in its building. They also fear a new program could exacerbate enrollment declines at the school, which offers a Spanish dual language program.
Queens International will join the Internationals Network for Public Schools, which supports 17 public schools across New York City that exclusively cater to students who recently arrived from other countries. It will be the first middle school for new arrivals in Queens.
City officials said the new school will help accommodate a rapid increase in the number of migrant families — an estimated 48,000 newcomers have enrolled in local public schools since the summer of 2022. Queens public schools have absorbed the largest share of newcomers of the five boroughs, city officials said.
It’s unclear whether the city will continue to see such an influx in the coming years, or whether it might even see some people leave as local and federal officials attempt to reduce the flow of new migrants and the city faces an affordability crisis.
Approval to open the new international school comes as President Donald Trump has vowed to accelerate deportations and his administration this week rescinded a longstanding policy that limited immigration enforcement at schools and other sensitive locations. Mayor Eric Adams refrained from taking a clear stance on the shift.
Leaders of the Internationals Network previously said they have been preparing for a more hostile stance from the Trump administration. And the Panel for Educational Policy, which has the power to approve school openings, unanimously voted Wednesday evening in favor of a resolution laying out protections for undocumented students.
Similar to other schools in the Internationals Network, the new Queens outpost promises to offer support for children who are in the process of learning English and may have experienced disruptions to their schooling. Students at Queens International will also have access to Advanced Placement courses, opportunities to sample college coursework through CUNY’s College Now program, and paid apprenticeships in technology, finance, and business.
Much of the pushback to the new school at Wednesday’s panel meeting came from community members from I.S. 77, who pointed to a two-year co-location with Bushwick Leaders High School for Academic Excellence, an arrangement they described as chaotic. Some children from I.S. 77 said students at the high school sometimes got into fights that required them to stay in their classrooms until the disruption was resolved.
Other community members worried that opening Queens International in the building would strain access to shared resources, such as the cafeteria, and exacerbate enrollment declines at I.S. 77. They pushed for the Education Department to instead invest in expanding I.S. 77.
“It would create competition and comparison by parents and students and may lead to a shift of their students to an international school which is equipped with more resources,” Manisha Jain, a member of the local parent council in Queens District 24 said during the Wednesday evening meeting. The District 24 parent council overwhelmingly passed a resolution urging the city to reconsider the co-location proposal.
City officials contend that there is plenty of room for both schools, as the building is only at 39% capacity. Even once Queens International reaches its full projected enrollment of up to 510 students, the building will still have excess space, city projections show.
Alan Cheng, an Education Department superintendent who oversees the Internationals Network schools, noted that Queens International will focus on enrolling newly arrived immigrants who are learning English.
“This ensures that Queens International is meant to compliment, rather than compete, with the I.S. 77 dual language bilingual program,” he said, adding that the school “will address a critical need in our city.”
After hours of testimony, the proposal to open Queens International won nearly unanimous support from the education panel.
Notably, one of Mayor Adams’ appointees, Darling James Miramey, abstained from the vote. He called the proposal a “lose-lose situation.”
“I know that I’m [a] mayoral appointee and I should say yes,” Miramey said, referencing the longstanding practice of mayoral appointees voting in favor of proposals advanced by the Education Department, which the mayor controls. “I want more time for [a] better solution.”
The panel also approved another new Queens high school this coming fall called HBCU Early College Prep, a selective program that will partner with a historically Black university and offer early college credit. The vote in favor of that school was unanimous.
Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.
