Westchester County, NY - where Education means "Excellence"

Westchester residents and businesses alike recognize that their most valuable resource is human capital and invest accordingly. The county’s outstanding educational facilities provide excellence at all levels, from pre-school to post-graduate, and include technical and vocational skills development.

Westchester’s forty (40) school districts reflect the diversity of the county in many ways, and all share a mutual commitment to excellence and achievement. School districts vary in enrollment size, from smaller village districts to larger urban systems.

Expenditures per pupil are substantial throughout the county. Pupil/teacher ratios are kept low, and support personnel and services are extensive. Westchester continues to attract well qualified professionals to staff its schools. Many teachers are educated at the master’s level and beyond and continue to participate in ongoing professional activities. Four Westchester schools were among the 12 in New York to win recognition in the 1994-95 Blue Ribbon Schools Program sponsored by the US Department of Education.

Westchester’s school districts are in the vanguard of innovative educational concepts and programs. Involvement, commitment and support on the part of teachers, administrators, parents, local business and government leaders have created dynamic and stimulating learning environments to accommodate the plurality of needs and talents in the student population. Within New York State, Westchester students excel in the Regents examinations, pupil evaluation programs and preliminary competency tests. SAT scores in the county exceed state and national averages, and an exceptionally large proportion of students take the exam. Most Westchester high school students go on to college, with some districts reporting close to or 100 percent enrollment.

For those students wishing to enter the workforce directly, many vocational programs are offered within local school districts and through the Board of Cooperative Educational Services
(BOCES). These programs include Occupational Education, Special Education, Instructional Services, Information Systems and Interscholastic Athletics and Transportation Services. In addition, Westchester County contains several Special Act Districts, which provide unique educational and therapeutic opportunities to students, between the ages of five (5) and twenty-one (21), who have experienced difficulty in previous school settings.

Westchester County offers a choice of private elementary and secondary schools as well. Among these are a number of culturally-oriented institutions, such as the German School, the French-American school and Keio High School, a Japanese high school, indications of Westchester’s increasingly global population.

The county is home to more than twenty post-secondary schools, almost all of which grant degrees. In addition, several business schools offer certificate programs.

Source: Westchester County Department of Planning Databook

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