Icahn Charter School 6: strong results, two sites, and a lottery rule to verify

Source discipline

Network design explains the model; Icahn 6 delivery is the decision

Icahn 6 is a separate not-for-profit education corporation with its own charter. It also participates in a shared service team that supports seven Icahn schools.

SUNY describes common systems for curriculum, assessment, professional development, finance, operations, recruitment, and student support. That makes network evidence relevant, but it does not prove the staffing, schedule, or service capacity at either Icahn 6 campus next fall.

Icahn 6’s own accountability report supplies useful school-specific evidence: Core Knowledge, Wit & Wisdom for literacy, Illustrative Mathematics, ongoing assessment, in-school remediation, and after-school tutoring. SUNY’s renewal team also observed common curriculum and instructional expectations across the network.

Families should still ask for actual timetables, materials, group sizes, and intervention blocks in Grades K, 4, and 6. Do not assume every network enrichment or support appears every week at both sites.

Preferences and waitlists

The district preference conflict needs a written answer

Icahn’s posted order is sibling first, employee child second, and district resident third. The employee preference is capped at 15% of total school enrollment, and the child must live in New York.

The sheet says a twin receives an automatic seat when the other twin is selected. These are prior published mechanics, not a guarantee that the Fall 2027 notice will be identical.

The important conflict is geographic. Icahn’s own lottery sheet identifies the K–4 lower school as CSD 9 and the Grade 5–8 middle school as CSD 12.

SUNY’s current school page and 2026 renewal report classify Icahn 6 as a CSD 9 charter and list both sites in CSD 9. The sources cannot both control the same Grade 5 lottery preference.

Before relying on a district advantage—especially for a Grade 5 applicant—ask which district governs, why, and where that rule appears in the board-approved Fall 2027 notice.

A preference changes ordering; it does not make every preferred applicant an offer. Ask how overlapping preferences are ordered, how siblings are defined across two campuses, whether a sibling must still be enrolled on lottery day or enrollment day, and how a change of address affects priority.

Do not infer a child’s community school district from borough, ZIP code, or nearest campus.

The posted sheet uses an A prefix for an offered seat and W for waitlist position. That notation does not answer how frequently lists move, whether positions change when preferences are verified, how long an offer stays open, or whether applying to more than one Icahn school affects another list.

Treat a waitlist as an unresolved option and keep every parallel enrollment route active.

Buildings and accessibility

One charter creates two different physical experiences

The lower school serves Kindergarten through Grade 4 at 1701 Fulton Avenue and shares NYCPS building X004 with another school. The upper school serves Grades 5–8 at 1776 Mansion Street, a separate facility.

Visit the site your child would actually attend. A tour of Fulton Avenue cannot answer questions about a sixth grader’s classrooms, arrival, recreation, nurse, or dismissal at Mansion Street.

NYCPS marks the Fulton Avenue building “No Accessibility.” That is a direct warning for a child, caregiver, or family member with mobility needs, not a minor tour detail.

The NYCPS profile lists Mansion Street as a second building but does not publish an accessibility rating for it. Ask for an in-person accessible route review covering entrance, classroom, cafeteria, bathroom, nurse, gym, assembly, evacuation, and family events at the correct site.

A charter’s duty to avoid disability discrimination does not make an inaccessible building physically accessible. Ask which reasonable accommodations are already available and which modifications require NYCPS or landlord approval.

Can every mandated service be delivered on an accessible route? What site or program alternative will the school propose if it cannot?

Get the answer before an enrollment deadline, not after the first day.

Teaching and learning

A knowledge-rich spine with newer literacy and mathematics materials

Core Knowledge is the school’s curricular spine: a sequenced body of literature, history, geography, science, music, and art intended to build shared background knowledge across grades. During the recent charter term, Icahn moved to Wit & Wisdom for English language arts and implemented Illustrative Mathematics across grade levels.

SUNY says teachers use close reading, cognitively guided instruction, problem-solving assessments, clear modeling, discussion, exit tickets, and common expectations.

Icahn 6’s own report describes curriculum review by the principal, staff developer, specialists, and consultants, with benchmark and state data used to adjust instruction. Students who show a deficiency may receive Targeted Assistance through in-school remediation and after-school tutoring.

The model is academically explicit and data-aware; families should ask how much of the day is whole-group, small-group, independent, discussion-based, or assessment-driven for their child’s grade.

Network descriptions also mention art, music, computer science, chess, plays, mock trial, junior ambassadors, and other partnerships. Those examples show the organization’s range, not an Icahn 6 guarantee by grade or semester.

Ask which activities ran at each site in 2025–26 and which are scheduled for 2026–27. Who teaches them, how often do they meet, is participation universal, and what is already funded for Fall 2027?

Day, homework, and care

“Extended” is not a usable childcare plan until the hours are published

Icahn 6 reported a 7.5-hour day and a 180-to-182-day year in its 2024–25 Accountability Plan Progress Report. That is evidence of the recent operating model, not a published Fall 2027 bell schedule or calendar.

The current site does not clearly state arrival, breakfast, late policy, dismissal, half days, conference days, or whether Fulton and Mansion keep identical hours.

Homework is another material unknown. Public sources do not give normal nightly minutes by grade, weekend or holiday work, independent-reading load, adult checking expectations, grading rules, device access, or accommodation practices.

Ask to see a recent set of assignments from the grade your child would enter, including the work itself and the teacher feedback that follows.

After-school tutoring is an intervention, not necessarily five-day aftercare. The renewal record describes targeted after-school and Saturday support.

Public materials do not establish universal care hours, fees, eligibility, capacity, pickup rules, early-dismissal coverage, or programming at both sites. Solve care with named programs and written pickup arrangements before accepting; treat school-based tutoring as academic support rather than childcare coverage.

IEPs, 504 plans, and multilingual learners

The framework is credible; the child-level service map is still required

SUNY describes a tiered support model. Teachers and a school support team use data to assign targeted assistance, monitor progress, and refer a child to the district Committee on Special Education when intervention is insufficient.

SETSS teachers develop academic goals, communicate with families, join grade-level planning, and monitor IEP progress. That is useful network evidence, but it does not identify the 2027 provider, setting, group size, frequency, or service record at either site.

In 2024–25, SUNY reports that 17.1% of Icahn 6 students were students with disabilities, up from 10.1% in 2022–23. The share shows that the school serves a meaningful IEP population; it does not show which program recommendations it can deliver.

Ask who provides SETSS, ICT instruction if applicable, speech, occupational or physical therapy, counseling, assistive technology, behavioral support, nursing, and specialized transportation—and how missed services are documented and made up.

A 504 plan can govern health, access, testing, attendance, behavior, sensory, or other accommodations without special-education instruction. Public Icahn sources do not map a campus 504 coordinator, nurse coverage, medication and emergency procedures, elevator access, or accommodation monitoring.

Ask for the implementation owner at the assigned site and walk through each accommodation against a real day, including field trips, lunch, physical education, testing, homework, and arrival.

SUNY says Icahn uses NYSITELL to identify English language learners and places students in skill-based small groups with certified ELL teachers while classroom teachers use visual and language supports in the core curriculum. Icahn 6’s 2024–25 ELL share was 8.0%, compared with 25.5% in CSD 9.

Ask which licensed teachers are assigned to each site, push-in and pull-out minutes, home-language access, translated family communication, NYSESLAT progress, and how the school supports a newcomer at the beginning level.

Wellness and belonging

Restorative language still needs a campus staffing answer

During the charter term, the Icahn schools partnered with Morningside Center for social-emotional instruction, restorative community practices, and advisory. SUNY also heard families describe individualized attention and relationships with teachers, principals, and guidance counselors.

Those findings are encouraging, but they combine evidence from seven schools and a small renewal focus group rather than publishing the Icahn 6 counseling roster or caseloads.

Enrollment continuity

75.1% persistence is a question, not a verdict

SUNY reports Icahn 6 persistence in enrollment of 75.1% for 2024–25, down from 79.6% in 2023–24 and 79.3% in 2022–23. The report describes persistence as the share of students who returned from the previous year.

It also reports 88% across the seven Icahn schools in 2024–25 and says no NYCPS or statewide comparison is available. Icahn 6’s figure therefore deserves direct follow-up.

Persistence is not grade retention, promotion, expulsion, or proof of “pushout.” A child may not return because of a move, family preference, commute, high-school transition, service mismatch, placement elsewhere, non-promotion, or another reason.

The aggregate percentage does not separate voluntary and school-initiated exits, does not show when students left, and does not establish causation.

Culture and discipline

Low reported suspension rates do not replace the current code

For 2024–25, SUNY reports both an out-of-school suspension rate and an in-school suspension rate of 0.7% at Icahn 6. The out-of-school rate is calculated as students receiving at least one out-of-school suspension divided by total enrollment.

The table does not provide a district comparator, incident count, days lost, repeat-student count, grade distribution, reason, or subgroup breakdown, and the same child could appear in more than one measure.

Transit and daily feasibility

Map the grade your child will enter—and the Grade 5 handoff

Fulton Avenue and Mansion Street are separate commutes in different parts of the Bronx. A route that works for Kindergarten may not work after the Grade 5 move, and families with children on both sides of that transition may face two arrivals, two dismissals, or two after-school pickups.

Test each trip at the actual weekday arrival and dismissal times once Icahn publishes them; include walking conditions, transfers, elevator needs, service changes, and the authorized-adult policy.

Charter admission does not itself guarantee a yellow-bus route. NYCPS transportation depends on grade, distance, address, program, and available routing; eligible students may receive yellow-bus service or a student OMNY card.

A student with an IEP may have a separate specialized-transportation recommendation. Verify the assigned campus address and the child’s individual eligibility rather than relying on another family’s arrangement.

Walk through the difficult days before accepting: a late bus, absent pickup adult, early dismissal, tutoring day, sibling at the other campus, therapy appointment, and severe weather. Ask who supervises a delayed child, whether tutoring changes transportation, whether a provider picks up from the correct door, and how Fulton and Mansion communicate a same-day change.

The answer should be operational, not “families make it work.”

Questions, complaints, and appeals

Know which issue stays at school and which one reaches the board

SUNY treats teacher assignment, class placement, grades, promotion, retention, and suspension disputes as informal complaints generally handled in writing through the teacher, principal, and school’s policy. Keep the timeline, policy section, people contacted, requested remedy, and written response together.

If the issue involves immediate safety, discrimination, special-education due process, or child protection, do not let the ordinary school ladder delay the appropriate urgent route.

An alleged violation of law or the charter is a formal complaint. It goes first, in writing, under Icahn 6’s complaint policy to its education-corporation board or board designee.

The school must make that policy available. If the board does not satisfactorily resolve it, the family may appeal with the board’s written decision to the SUNY Charter Schools Institute and then, after SUNY’s determination, to the New York State Board of Regents.

Fall 2027 admissions

Use the prior cycle as a reminder, never as the new rulebook

As of September 1, 2026, Icahn has not posted a Fall 2027–28 application deadline, lottery date, drawing format, offer-response window, waitlist expiration date, Kindergarten eligibility rule, or grade-by-grade seat target. The current SchoolMint link and 2026–27 announcement are live resources, but neither is a final notice for the cycle this guide covers.

Save a dated copy of the new rules when they appear and get any material clarification in writing.

The posted guidelines say applications received on or before April 1 enter a random third-party lottery and later applicants may call about available seats. They also use the placeholder year “202X,” which is one reason not to treat the sheet as a dated Fall 2027 public notice.

Build an earlier internal reminder, then confirm the actual deadline directly with Icahn.

A lottery application should not require a test, interview, essay, or demonstrated academic record. Families should nevertheless ask which documents prove age, residence, sibling status, or employee status.

Confirm what is required to enter the lottery, what is due only after an offer, and what happens when paperwork is incomplete. A neutral documentation step can become a practical barrier if the timing is unclear.

Kindergarten and later grades

Kindergarten is the ordinary opening; Grades 1–8 depend on attrition

Icahn’s posted guide says Kindergarten generally has 36 open seats. “Generally” matters: it is not a Fall 2027 seat promise, and sibling and employee applicants may consume part of the cohort before other preference groups are reached.

Ask for the authorized Kindergarten cohort, returning or repeating students, verified preferred applicants, number of seats actually offered in the lottery, and the school’s historical offer-to-enrollment yield.

For every other grade, the guide says the lottery creates a waitlist, with sibling and employee preference, rather than identifying a normal new-seat cohort. In practice, a Grade 1–8 offer requires a real vacancy after continuing students are counted.

A school can accept an application without having an open seat. Ask for current enrollment and chartered capacity in the requested grade, expected departures, offers made, and the date the school last admitted from that grade’s list.

The two-site model makes Grade 5 a transition for continuing Icahn 6 students, not a fresh middle-school admissions guarantee for outside applicants. Confirm whether all continuing fourth graders advance automatically to Mansion Street, how that affects Grade 5 vacancies, and what records, orientation, transportation, and support handoffs follow the child across sites.