Three public school districts in Erie County, New York, received overall grades of C+ or C in Niche’s latest evaluations—the lowest overall marks among the county’s listed districts.
The 2027 evaluations bring together districts with distinctly different settings and priorities. Their own reporting adds useful detail, from career-training access in rural southern Erie County to family counseling and plans to strengthen reading instruction closer to Buffalo.
Two districts share the C+ grade and appear alphabetically below, followed by the district receiving a C.
Cheektowaga-Sloan Union Free School District — Overall Niche Grade: C+
Cheektowaga-Sloan serves the Sloan community and surrounding portions of Cheektowaga, with four schools spanning preschool through grade 12. Its current Niche profile lists 1,334 students and a student-teacher ratio of 12:1.
That ratio compares enrollment with full-time-equivalent teachers. It does not mean every classroom contains 12 students.
Reading Instruction Is an Explicit Improvement Priority
Niche gives the district a C+ for academics and college preparation and a C for teachers. Its profile reports reading proficiency of 38% and math proficiency of 46%, identifying the underlying assessment period as 2024–25.
Those results leave considerable room for improvement, particularly in reading. The district’s 2025–26 comprehensive improvement plan describes efforts to strengthen elementary reading expertise, train educators in explicit instruction and improve how assessment information guides student support.
At John F. Kennedy Middle School, the plan specifically calls for collecting and analyzing information from its CommonLit English language arts curriculum to inform instruction.
These are documented priorities, rather than proof of completed gains. They nevertheless give families specific instructional changes to follow.
Family Counseling Extends Beyond the Classroom
A distinctive district service is the Family Solutions Center, located at Woodrow Wilson Elementary School. It offers district families free, confidential, short-term counseling and consultation.
The district directs families to their child’s school social worker to arrange an appointment. Its published schedule includes Thursday appointments extending into the evening, making the service potentially more accessible to working parents.
This is a practical resource alongside the district’s academic improvement work. For a family needing help navigating a difficult period, knowing how to reach that support may be more immediately useful than another category grade.
Holland Central School District — Overall Niche Grade: C+
Holland shares Cheektowaga-Sloan’s overall C+, despite operating in a very different part of Erie County. The preschool-through-grade-12 district serves the Holland area through elementary, middle and high schools.
For a dated enrollment reference, a New York State Education Department report lists 697 students in 2024–25. Its small scale makes the details of regional partnerships especially relevant to understanding available opportunities.
Career Training Reaches Beyond Holland’s Campus
Holland’s career and technical education guidance directs students to programs at the Ormsby Center. It also explains that Potter Road programs are available when the desired program is not offered at Ormsby.
That qualification matters. A regional course catalog can contain more choices than an individual student can readily access, depending on program location and transportation.
The district explicitly states that it does not transport students to Harkness or Calspan. Families exploring a particular trade or technical field therefore need to check the actual location and arrangements, rather than assuming every regional offering is equally accessible.
This partnership structure expands the conversation beyond the courses taught in Holland’s own classrooms.
Building Work Is Part of the Current School Experience
Holland’s capital-project updates document work across its school buildings during 2026, including middle-school playground and turf improvements, pool-related work and high-school technology and wood-shop projects.
These are concrete facilities developments, separate from Niche’s overall evaluation. The project record does not establish that construction improved academic outcomes or explain the district’s grade.
It does, however, identify changes affecting the spaces students use. For families considering Holland, the useful follow-up is which projects are complete, how renovated areas are being used and whether the available academic and career pathways fit their student’s plans.
Lackawanna City School District — Overall Niche Grade: C
Lackawanna City School District received the lowest overall grade in this comparison. Serving the city from preschool through grade 12, its Niche profile lists 2,186 students and an 11:1 student-teacher ratio.
Its report card combines academic concerns with stronger marks in several other areas of school life.
Academic Results Contrast With Stronger Activity Grades
Niche assigns Lackawanna a C for academics and teachers, alongside a B− for college preparation. Clubs and activities, sports, and resources and facilities each receive a B+.
The profile reports reading proficiency of 26% and math proficiency of 22%, identifying the assessment period as 2024–25. Those figures make foundational academic performance a clear concern, even where other parts of the district experience receive more favorable evaluations.
The district’s 2023–26 strategic plan set a goal of having 50% of students reach proficiency on state English language arts assessments by June 2026. It outlined reading-instruction training, teacher coaching and additional learning opportunities.
That target is a stated objective, not a verified result. Families evaluating progress should look for subsequent reporting that measures the same students and assessments covered by the goal.
Saturday Academy Connects Families With Local Resources
Lackawanna’s community programming offers another view of district life. An October 2026 Saturday Academy announcement described a gathering at Truman Elementary designed to connect families with local organizations and resources.
Scheduled partners included the Lackawanna Public Library, Erie County Health, the Steel Plant Museum and a parent-family resource center. Breakfast and lunch were included.
The event’s purpose was community connection rather than academic remediation.
That distinction gives families a clearer picture of what the program provides: access to people and services that can support life beyond the school day, alongside the district’s separate responsibility to improve classroom outcomes.
Erie County’s Lowest Grades Cover Different School Experiences
The other 24 districts in Niche’s county listing received overall grades of B− or higher, with the full list reaching A+. The featured districts therefore occupy a distinct portion of the county’s grade range, although none received a D or F.
Under Niche’s current district methodology, overall grades combine academics with teachers, culture and diversity, family surveys, resources, activities and sports. Standardized-test performance contributes to that assessment but does not determine it alone.
Local geography also changes what families should examine. In Holland, regional career-course access includes transportation limits; in Cheektowaga-Sloan, a district counseling service offers a direct point of contact for families.
Reporting dates deserve attention, too. A 2027 evaluation can contain earlier assessment results, while a strategic plan describes intended work rather than demonstrated progress.
The most useful school comparison keeps those distinctions visible and examines how services operate at the particular building a child would attend.
Selection note: Niche’s 2027 Erie County listing contained 27 operating district entries with verifiable overall grades. These three were selected by overall letter grade; the C+ cutoff included both tied districts.
For families, the next step is a focused conversation about instruction and access. Ask how reading or math support fits into the school day, what evidence shows whether it is helping and how students enter advanced or career courses.
Check transportation where programs operate off campus, and identify the person who coordinates family support.
Districtwide grades can help organize that investigation, but school-level information—and the match between a child’s needs and the opportunities actually available—will make it more useful.
