Welcome to the website of the Harlem Day Charter School. Since opening our doors in 2001 to 50 students in kindergarten and first grade, we at Harlem Day Charter School have taken very seriously our mission of providing children with a stable, rigorous environment in which they may grow academically, socially and ethically, and where they might receive an education that prepares them for a future without limitations. In order to fulfill that mission, we believe that we must support our students with a comprehensive array of programming that not only challenges them in the classroom, but that also addresses their personal and family needs, stimulates them in the hours and months beyond the traditional school day and year, and encourages their natural curiosity about the world around them. Our Student Support Team, our Extended Day Program and our Summer Session have all been designed with these goals in mind. As our school grows and becomes stronger, we are more and more mindful of the impact these programs have on the well-being of our students. Founded in 2001 by Sheltering Arms Children’s Services and Benjamin V. Lambert, a successful real estate entrepreneur with a history of working closely with educational organizations, Harlem Day Charter School is authorized under a charter from the State University of New York to provide students with a stable, rigorous environment where they can build a solid foundation of basic academic skills: reading, writing, mathematics, and language usage. The Harlem Day Charter School is located at 240 East 123rd Street and 2nd Avenue, at the heart of one of the most under-performing school districts in New York City. As dictated by New York State charter law, the school is non-profit, and organized solely for the purpose of delivering a free, high quality education to its students. The school currently serves 240 students in kindergarten through fifth grade. Harlem Day selects students randomly using a lottery system. Our maximum class size is limited to 20 students per classroom. In the spring of 2004, there were four times more students on a waiting list than Harlem Day was able to admit for the academic year, a testament to the widespread desire for school choice. Although the school is open to any student eligible to attend public school in New York City, nearly all students live in The Bronx or Harlem. The student body is ethnically representative of the Harlem community at large.