SHSAT Test Dates 2026 — register October 6–30, test November 18

The SHSAT School Day is Wednesday, November 18, 2026, for all NYC public school students in middle schools that terminate in the eighth grade — they test at their own school during the school day. Weekend sittings, which are for students at charter schools, private and parochial schools and homeschooled students, and the separate ninth-grade dates have not yet been published by the DOE; it states they will be announced later this fall. We will add them here as soon as they are official rather than printing an estimate.

Registration opens Monday, October 6, 2026 and closes Friday, October 30, 2026. It runs through MySchools, normally with your child’s school counselor, and it is also where you rank the eight testing Specialized High Schools in preference order. There is no second window: a student not registered by October 30 does not sit the SHSAT in this cycle.

On a weekend date rather than the November 18 School Day, at a central NYC Public Schools testing site. The DOE has not yet published the Fall 2026 weekend sites and dates — it says they will come later this fall. What you can do now is register during the October 6–30 window, which is the same for every student regardless of school type, and watch both this page and MySchools. Your child’s test ticket, available roughly two weeks after registration closes, is what will confirm their exact date and location.

Yes. First-time ninth graders applying for tenth-grade entry sit the SHSAT on their own dates, historically after the eighth-grade weekend sittings. The DOE has not published the Fall 2026 ninth-grade dates. Note also that tenth-grade entry is far more competitive: the lowest qualifying scores for tenth-grade seats in 2026 admissions ran well above the ninth-grade figures at several schools — 652 at both Bronx Science and Brooklyn Latin, against 525 and 495 for ninth-grade entry.

The DOE has not announced a results date for the Fall 2026 administration. As a planning reference, results from the Fall 2025 administration were released in MySchools on March 5, 2026, so early March is a reasonable expectation — but treat it as an assumption rather than a published date. Results include your child’s score and up to one offer to a testing Specialized High School.

There is no published target — the cutoff is whatever the lowest admitted score turns out to be that year, and it moves with the size and strength of the applicant pool. The last published figures, for 2026 ninth-grade admissions, were 561 at Stuyvesant, 539 at HSMSE, 531 at Queens Science, 525 at Bronx Science, 517 at Staten Island Tech, 507 at Lehman, 506 at Brooklyn Tech and 495 at Brooklyn Latin. Use them to calibrate, never as a guarantee for 2027.

Earlier than most families expect. If your child has a 504 Plan, or attends a charter or non-public school with a similar school-based accommodation plan, all documentation must reach the DOE for review at least three weeks before the registration deadline — so on or before October 9, 2026 for this cycle. Documentation received later may not be reviewed in time for your child’s test date. Approved accommodations appear on the test ticket. For students with IEPs or 504 Plans, existing accommodations carry over; work through your school counselor, not directly with the schools.

Standard administration time is 180 minutes. English Language Learners and eligible former ELLs receive double time — 360 minutes — plus two 15-minute breaks after the first 180 minutes. The SHSAT is now administered on computer: the DOE states that students with IEPs or 504 Plans will test on computer with their accommodations delivered in or alongside the digital platform, with paper reserved for the rare case where another accommodation requires it. The DOE has also said it will publish a digital readiness activity for public middle school students later this fall.