Why is the Bronx better at including students with disabilities?
The question
Why does the within-school gap between students with disabilities and their non-disabled classmates vary so much by borough?
Within the same school, students with disabilities score lower than their non-disabled classmates on the fifth-grade math test. The size of that gap varies by borough: Staten Island 34 percentage points, Brooklyn 32, Queens 32, Manhattan 29, Bronx 27. The Bronx has the smallest absolute gap — partly because the score for non-disabled students is also lower, which mechanically shrinks the difference. As a ratio (the proficiency rate for students with disabilities divided by the rate for non-disabled students), the Bronx and Staten Island look similar. Bronx schools have higher Integrated Co-Teaching enrollment, which may explain some of the closeness — Integrated Co-Teaching pairs a general-education teacher with a special-education teacher in the same classroom.
Data analysis
Investigation run 2026-05-31.
TL;DR
The within-school math gap between students with disabilities and non-disabled classmates varies by borough: Staten Island 34.1 percentage points, Brooklyn 32.2, Queens 32.0, Manhattan 29.4, Bronx 26.9. The Bronx has the smallest absolute gap, but that partly reflects a lower citywide ceiling on the non-disabled side. Bronx schools have higher Integrated Co-Teaching enrollment, which may explain some of the closeness.
Within-school disability gap on grade-5 math, by borough (2024-25)
| Borough | Schools | Non-disabled avg | Students with disabilities avg | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Staten Island | 49 | 72.6% | 38.5% | 34.1 |
| Brooklyn | 196 | 61.7% | 29.6% | 32.2 |
| Queens | 181 | 64.6% | 32.7% | 32.0 |
| Manhattan | 108 | 63.0% | 33.5% | 29.4 |
| Bronx | 139 | 48.9% | 22.0% | 26.9 |
Why the Bronx gap looks smallest
Bronx students with disabilities average 22% proficient on grade-5 math; non-disabled classmates average 49%. When the rate for non-disabled students is lower, the absolute gap is mechanically smaller. As a ratio, the picture is similar across boroughs: Bronx students with disabilities score 45% of the non-disabled average (22 of 49); on Staten Island the ratio is 53% (38.5 of 72.6). On the ratio metric, the Bronx isn't pulling ahead.
Where absolute outcomes are highest
Staten Island has the highest proficiency rate for students with disabilities of any borough (38.5%). It also has the highest non-disabled rate (72.6%), which is why the gap there looks large. A Staten Island student with disabilities, on average, outscores the average non-disabled Bronx student. The 'small gap is good' framing misses that both sides of the Bronx gap are lower in absolute terms.
Two different questions behind the gap statistic
Two distinct questions sit behind any gap measure. One: which borough has the smallest within-school gap? Another: where do students with disabilities score highest in absolute terms? The answers differ. Staten Island leads on absolute outcomes; the Bronx leads on the narrowest gap. Staten Island's profile: well-resourced Special Education Teacher Support Services and Integrated Co-Teaching classrooms serving a smaller population of students with disabilities. The Bronx's profile: higher Integrated Co-Teaching enrollment as a share of the borough's students.
Caveats
Sample sizes vary — the Bronx has 139 schools in the analysis, Staten Island only 49. Staten Island's higher overall scores partly reflect more advantaged borough demographics. A challenge-group-adjusted comparison would isolate the school-effect part of the variation.
What's next
Pull Integrated Co-Teaching classroom enrollment data per school. Compare schools with high Integrated Co-Teaching density with schools where it's low. If the Bronx pattern is real and structural, the question for reporters is what Integrated Co-Teaching looks like in practice in those classrooms.
Methodology & replication recipe — the data sources, queries, and steps behind this analysis.