3446 85th St
Jackson Heights, NY 11372

Just graduated from this school. One of the worst experiences in my life. Administration is terrible, all they care about are themselves.They don’t want students get in trouble only to not get in trouble themselves. Even on our graduation, more than 3/4 of principal’s speech was about how cell phones are bad because of cyber bullying. No punishments are established for bad behaving students. Our assistant principal told us what would happen, but it never happened to anyone. Maximum - teachers’ call home. This school doesn’t care about their students’ mental health either. Multiple times throughout the year, principal sent to teachers emails and announced through intercom that “there is no time to spend on socialization”. Only good thing about this school are the teachers. Most of them do actually care about the students, however they can’t do much, as school administration doesn’t care. School aids don’t care about children either. Two of them said that they don’t care about students multiple times throughout my 3 years there. One of them, who was monitoring cafeteria bathroom was crouching in order to see if children were using their phones in bathroom stalls. Overall most of the students feel constant mental pressure and stress in this school. If your child says that they don’t like their school, listen to them and transfer to the school with better rating.

PS212 is a great neighborhood school. It has a warm community and teachers who care. We'd send our child there again if we were to start over. However, there is one aspect of this school that is lacking: The children don't get enough recess or outdoor time because the school has limited outdoor space. I am understanding of this challenge, but I am greatly disappointed in the school's solution: They show movies in the auditorium at lunch time every single day (kids alternate between movie days and outdoor days). Kids should have playtime (in the classroom, if needed), not screen time. The movie culture extends beyond the recess hours, as well. Both specials and classroom teachers "reward" kids with movies. There is so much non-academic screen time at PS212 that I am giving it only 3 stars.