Families with Dependent Children. In the 1997-1998 school year, 73% of students from kindergarten through sixth grade were eligible to participate in the free lunch program, compared with 5% in the rest of the State. A large number of New York City public school students have special needs that require them to attend full-time or part-time special education programs. As of December 1, 1997, the most recent figure submitted in evidence, more than 135,000 students were enrolled in such programs. The intersection of factors such as students' poverty, immigration status, and limited English language proficiency [187 [187 Misc.2d Misc.2d 22] 22] means that New York City has a high proportion of students "at risk" of academic failure. In the Regents' formulation "at risk" students are defined as those students whose social, economic or personal circumstances are not supportive of successful schooling * * * They are at-risk of not completing high school, and, as a result, will be denied future opportunities for future participation in and contribution to the economic, social, cultural and civic life of their communities. The correlation between high poverty and low academic performance is well documented in numerous State publications, and was confirmed by fact and expert witnesses for both defendants and plaintiffs. The evidence points to several causes of the depressed academic achievement of poor children. Plaintiffs' experts testified that children in poverty are often educationally disadvantaged by domestic environments that do not encourage, and sometimes impede, academic endeavor. Parents in low-income families frequently work long hours and often do not have much formal education themselves. Thus they frequently lack the time to engage in activities to bolster their children's education. Additionally, family income must be spent on food and shelter and frequently there is little money left over for books or other educational tools. For most low-income families a home computer remains unaffordable. However, even if money were available, low-income parents with little formal education may not appreciate the need for educational enrichment via books, educational toys or a computer. Children of low-income families typically start school without such skills as knowledge of the alphabet, sound/symbol relationships, familiarity with counting and numbers, and vocabulary and concept development. All the disadvantages summarized in this paragraph may be compounded in poor single-parent families. Other factors that often attend poverty, such as homelessness, frequent change of residence, teen pregnancy, and poor health, have negative effects on educational achievement. Low-income students frequently live in areas and attend schools with high concentrations of poverty, which limits their contact with higher-achieving students from more privileged backgrounds. Isolation of low-income students from higher-achieving peers can reinforce negative attitudes toward schooling. Minority status is another socioeconomic indicator that is negatively correlated with student achievement, in part [187 [187 Misc.2d Misc.2d 23] 23] because it is linked with poverty. According to SED, minority students are "more likely than white students to attend public schools with concentrated poverty" where "concentrated poverty" is defined as more than 40% of students' families on public assistance. The evidence indicates that race and ethnicity are not pure proxies for poverty, however. Plaintiffs' expert Dr. David Grismer conducted a study of academic achievement by minorities in which he controlled for poverty status, parents' education and family income. Dr. Grismer found that race and ethnicity can be correlated with lower academic performance. The cause of this phenomenon has yet to be determined by social scientists. Explanations include the legacy of historic discrimination inflicted upon African-Americans and Latinos, and the rise of an anti-academic "oppositional" culture among some Blacks and Latinos that equates working hard in school with "acting White." It is not necessary to resolve this question in order to decide the issues presented by this lawsuit. Recent immigrants also face formidable obstacles to academic success. They are plagued by the same factors, discussed above, that attend poverty. Lack of proficiency in English and unfamiliarity with American culture can also all have a negative effect on the academic performance of the children of recent immigrants. As discussed in section V below, poverty, race, ethnicity, and immigration status are not in themselves determinative of student achievement. Demography is not destiny. The amount of melanin in a student's skin, the home country of her antecedents, and the amount of money in the family bank account are not the inexorable determinants of academic success. However, the life experiences summarized above that are correlated with poverty, race, ethnicity, and immigration status do tend to depress academic achievement. The evidence introduced at trial demonstrates that these negative life experiences can be overcome by public schools with sufficient resources well deployed. It is the clear policy of the State, as formulated by the Regents and SED, that all children can attain the substantive knowledge and master the skills expected of high school graduates. The court finds that the City's at-risk children are capable of seizing the opportunity for a sound basic education if they are given sufficient resources. B . M e a s u r i n g a S o u n d B a s i c E d u c at i o n b y I n p u t s a n d O u t p u t s In its 1995 decision the Court of Appeals directed this court to evaluate whether New York City public school students are [187 [187 Misc.2d Misc.2d 24] 24] receiving a sound basic education by examining both "inputs," the resources available in public schools, and "outputs," measures of student achievement, primarily test results and graduation rates. The inputs listed by the Court of Appeals fall into three large categories: 1. minimally adequate teaching of reasonably up-to-date basic curricula such as reading, writing, mathematics, science, and social studies, by sufficient personnel adequately trained to teach those subject areas; 2. minimally adequate physical facilities and classrooms which provide enough light, space, heat, and air to permit children to learn; and 3. minimally adequate instrumentalities of learning such as desks, chairs, pencils, and reasonably current textbooks. (Campaign for Fiscal Equity v State of New York, 86 N.Y.2d 307, 317, supra.)