Central Queens Academy Charter Schools will open CQA II in August 2024

Central Queens Academy Charter Schools (CQA) was approved by our authorizer, SUNY Charter Schools Institute (SUNY-CSI) for a new charter to replicate our schools and open CQA II in District 24 in 2024.

CQA was previously approved by SUNY-CSI to receive a second charter in 2019, but because of the cap on charter schools permitted to operate in New York City, CQA remained on the wait list since then. We, along with our families, other charter supporters and fellow charter school operators advocated for several years to lift the cap to allow new high-performing schools to open in the five boroughs. Finally in 2023, the New York State legislature included provisions in the budget for the allocation of new charters. We submitted updates to our application this past summer and we are proud to have been officially granted our second charter by a unanimous vote of the SUNY-CSI Board of Trustees.

At full-scale, over time, our new schools under CQA II will offer 900 total public school seats to the community. This is in addition to the 900 total students our current CQA I elementary and middle schools will serve. CQA II will open in August 2024 with Kindergarten and first grade and we'll expand by one grade each year thereafter.

We are now accepting applications for the next 2024-2025 school year for CQA I and CQA II. We anticipate CQA II elementary school to be located next door to our new construction CQA I building which is located in the heart of Elmhurst at the corner of Justice and 55th Avenues.

We're thrilled to finally have the opportunity to grow further to serve even more students and families in Queens.