How to Find Official Data for a New York School

New York families can check official, state-published information about a school without relying on third-party ratings or marketing materials. The New York State Education Department (NYSED) maintains several public and administrative systems, each designed for a different purpose. Knowing which system holds which information — and which ones are open to the public — saves time and prevents misreading data.

This guide explains where the official records live, how to move through them step by step, and what the numbers can and cannot tell you about a school.

Where New York’s official school data lives

Three NYSED systems come up most often when people look for a New York school’s official data:

• The NYSED Data Site (data.nysed.gov) — the public portal that lists schools and the data reported for them by school year. Its school list shows entries such as “A GATES ELEMENTARY SCHOOL” alongside data years like 2024-25 and 2023-24, so you can see which years are available for a given school. NYSED Data Site school list
• SEDREF — NYSED’s institution reference system. It holds contact information (phone, fax, email, and website), administrative contacts, and physical and mailing addresses with geographic information for institutions. It also provides reports that separate institutions by category, including active or inactive status, institution type and subtype, and schools by grade organization. NYSED SEDREF main information page
• L2RPT and SIRS — the Level 2 Reports and the Student Information Repository System. These are administrative tools districts use to verify the student and educator data they report to the state. They are not designed as public parent resources. NYSED L2RPT access information

Each system answers a different question. The data site answers “What has been reported about this school?” SEDREF answers “Is this the right school, and how do I contact it?” L2RPT answers “Did the district report our data correctly?” — a question that belongs mainly to district staff, not families.

Step-by-step: finding a school’s data

If you are starting from a school name, a practical sequence is:

1. Confirm the school’s identity. School names repeat across New York. Two schools in different districts or boroughs can share a name. Before reading any numbers, confirm you have the right institution by checking its address, district, and grade organization in SEDREF’s institution reports. NYSED SEDREF
2. Open the NYSED Data Site school list. The list groups schools alphabetically and shows the school years for which data exists. Find your school’s entry and note which years are available. NYSED Data Site school list
3. Read the data by year. Data is reported for specific school years, not as a single all-time figure. When you compare schools or years, match the school year first. A 2024-25 figure and a 2023-24 figure describe different periods.
4. Check the school’s grade organization. SEDREF reports can separate schools by grade organization. A school serving prekindergarten through grade 5 and a school serving grades 6 through 8 will not have comparable enrollment or assessment data, even if they are listed next to each other.
5. Note active or inactive status. SEDREF reports distinguish active and inactive institutions. If a school has closed, merged, or been renamed, the older record may still appear. Confirm status before drawing conclusions about current operations. NYSED SEDREF

Because SEDREF’s database is refreshed nightly, the most reliable approach is to run the report at the time you need it rather than relying on a saved copy. NYSED SEDREF

School identifiers: BEDS codes, NYSED IDs, and NCES IDs

Official records use numeric identifiers so that schools with similar names are not confused. Three identifier families appear in New York education data:

• BEDS code — the Basic Educational Data System code, New York’s identifier for schools and districts.
• NYSED institution ID — the identifier used within NYSED’s institution reference system.
• NCES ID — the identifier assigned by the National Center for Education Statistics, a federal agency, for its Common Core of Data and related collections.

These are separate numbering systems, and the same school will have more than one. When you copy an identifier, keep leading zeros; dropping them can point to a different record or fail to match. If a source lists an identifier, use that source’s identifier rather than substituting one from another system.

SEDREF: confirming a school’s identity and contacts

SEDREF is the reference layer underneath many NYSED reports. Its reports include institution contact information (phone, fax, email, and website), administrative contact information, and physical and mailing addresses with geographic information. It also offers reports that separate institutions by category, including active and inactive institutions, institution type and subtype, and schools by grade organization. NYSED SEDREF

For parents, SEDREF is most useful for two tasks: confirming that a school is the one you think it is, and finding the official contact details and address. For changes to SEDREF records, NYSED directs users to its data support contact. NYSED SEDREF

L2RPT and SIRS: the data behind the reports

Much of the data that eventually appears in public reporting is first submitted by districts through the Student Information Repository System (SIRS). Level 2 Reports (L2RPT) are designed to help districts verify that student demographic, enrollment, program, assessment, course, and graduation data — as well as educator data — have been reported correctly. NYSED L2RPT access information

L2RPT is an internal verification tool, not a public parent portal. Access is managed through the NYSED Delegated Account System (SEDDAS), which lets designated local education agency personnel add users and manage access for their own employees. Access is separated into roles for broad report categories; one example is a Free and Reduced Lunch role, which grants access to the Free and Reduced Price Lunch Eligibility on BEDS day verification report. NYSED L2RPT access information

The reports are refreshed by 6:00 a.m. each Monday until the reporting deadline for that dataset, and they are hosted regionally by the regional Level 1 Data Centers. NYSED L2RPT access information NYSED states that it is the responsibility of each district superintendent (for BOCES), school superintendent (for public school districts), and principal (for public, charter, and nonpublic schools) to ensure that access is granted only to individuals with a legitimate educational interest. NYSED L2RPT access information

For parents, the practical takeaway is that L2RPT helps explain why published numbers can change: if a district corrects a reporting error, the verified data — and later public reporting — can shift. It is not a system families are expected to log into.

What the numbers can and cannot tell you

Official data is valuable because it is reported under defined rules, but it has limits that matter when you are evaluating a school.

• School year matters. Every figure belongs to a specific reporting period. Comparing a 2024-25 figure with a 2023-24 figure compares different years and possibly different rules.
• Grade organization matters. A school’s grade span shapes its enrollment, staffing, and assessment data. SEDREF’s grade-organization reports help you check this before comparing. NYSED SEDREF
• Status matters. Active and inactive institutions are reported separately. A closed or renamed school may still have a record. NYSED SEDREF
• Reported data is not a verdict. A number describes what was reported for a defined population in a defined period. It does not by itself explain why a result occurred, and it should not be treated as a ranking of school quality.
• Missing is not zero. If a value does not appear, that can mean it was not reported, was not applicable, or was withheld to protect privacy. Treat an absent value as unknown rather than as a zero.

An illustrative comparison

Suppose two schools both show data for 2024-25. The first serves prekindergarten through grade 5; the second serves grades 6 through 8. Their enrollment figures describe different populations, and any assessment results cover different grades. Even if the two numbers look similar, they are not directly comparable. To make a fair comparison, match the reporting year and the grade organization first, then look at the same metric for the same population. This example is illustrative and does not describe any specific New York school.

Questions parents can ask

When you look up a school, these questions help you use the data well:

• Is this the correct school — right district, right address, right grade span? (Check SEDREF.)
• Which school year does this figure describe?
• Is the school currently active, or is this an older record? (Check SEDREF.)
• What population does this number cover — all students, or a subgroup?
• Is the value missing, or is it genuinely zero?
• Has the district verified this data? (L2RPT is the district’s verification tool.)
• Am I comparing this school to another with the same grade organization and the same reporting year?

Getting help with a record

If a school’s record looks wrong or incomplete, NYSED provides a data support contact for SEDREF questions. Districts, in turn, manage their own L2RPT access through SEDDAS. For a specific school’s data, the district office is usually the fastest route to an explanation of what was reported and when.

Sources and methodology

This guide describes publicly documented NYSED systems and does not evaluate any individual school. It relies on NYSED’s own descriptions of the Data Site school list, SEDREF, and L2RPT/SIRS access. Source-check date: October 12, 2026. Data periods shown in the Data Site example are the school years listed there (2024-25 and 2023-24). SEDREF reports are described as refreshed nightly; L2RPT reports are described as refreshed by 6:00 a.m. each Monday until the reporting deadline for a dataset. Where a specific school’s current data is needed, readers should run the relevant NYSED report at the time of use, because records change.