For months, in two of New York City’s most politically progressive neighborhoods, parents debated what to do about their deeply segregated schools. Now, after adopting a series of initiatives last year following many spirited and emotionally charged discussions, these neighborhoods are starting to see swift changes in enrollment, according to city data released on Monday.

Several schools in districts in Manhattan and Brooklyn will be more racially and socioeconomically diverse on the first day of school this fall than they are today as a result of these new measures. And the apparent success these districts are seeing could prompt other neighborhoods to consider their own diversity initiatives.

Also, the strategies parents implemented, which included setting new enrollment rules and eliminating using academic screens to sort students for admission, could compel City Hall to take more forceful action to integrate one of the nation’s most segregated school systems.

“Part of why we did this is we felt very strongly that you couldn’t improve just one school,” said Kristen Berger, who helped create the plan for Manhattan’s District 3, which includes the Upper West Side and Harlem. “That’s not very useful. It’s really a system. We really wanted to see movement at high- and low-demand schools.”

Parents who were frustrated with the segregated state of their local schools — and with the city’s reluctance to adopt measures to integrate the system as a whole — took matters into their own hands last year by drafting proposals that City Hall eventually approved.

As a result, in District 3 and District 15, most of the popular, high-performing, and largely white, middle schools will take on more vulnerable and diverse students. Also, more high-achieving children will enroll at low-performing schools that have typically been shunned by some middle class parents.

Though the new enrollment figures generally meet projections set by the city, much is still unknown about how the new system will work once in place. The mostly white parents who have been critical of the plans have said they are concerned about how struggling students will fare in the same classes as students with higher test scores and grades.

But proponents point to research showing that all children can benefit from going to school with students of other races and classes — a dynamic some sixth graders in New York City will experience for the first time this fall.

At M.S. 51 in Park Slope, the popular middle school where Mayor Bill de Blasio sent his two children, the percentage of students who are poor, learning English or homeless will jump from 33 percent to 57 percent this fall.

In some ways, M.S. 51 is a test case for the neighborhood’s entire integration plan, which has been heralded by supporters of integration as one of the most substantial changes any district has made recently to encourage diversity.

District 15 includes mostly white and middle class schools in Park Slope, as well as schools with large Hispanic populations in Sunset Park and schools with mostly black students in Red Hook. Students will now be admitted into middle schools according to a lottery, and each school has to set aside about half of its seats for students who are low-income, homeless or learning English.

“Children thrive in classroom environments that are filled with the rich diversity that is the hallmark of our city,” said Anita Skop, District 15’s superintendent.

For years, the district used a competitive admissions process that ranked students based on test scores and attendance rates, giving rise to segregated schools even in a racially and socioeconomically mixed district.

Some local middle schools that have consistently shouldered the largest number of vulnerable students will have more diverse student populations starting this fall: 91 percent of students admitted to I.S. 136 in Sunset Park last year were poor, homeless or learning English. This year, that number will drop to 67 percent.

Mr. de Blasio and schools chancellor Richard A. Carranza have said they consider District 15 a model for grass-roots integration efforts. The city had relatively little involvement in the design of the plan, and the mayor’s role was limited to approving the final proposal during a celebratory news conference last September.

Mr. de Blasio’s administration has faced criticism from advocates who believe the city has been too timid — and too reliant on parents in a handful of the city’s 32 school districts — in creating citywide integration policy. The mayor has said he wants families to lead the way, while the chancellor has vowed to create broader policy, but has not yet followed through on that promise.

“Districts 3 and 15 are showing how we can have the important conversations and take bold action on this issue,” Mr. Carranza said on Monday.

Across the city from Park Slope, middle schools in northern Manhattan will also see significant change in the new school year.

At Booker T. Washington — a high-performing, mostly white middle school on the Upper West Side that feeds a large share of it students into the city’s specialized high schools — the percentage of students who are both low-income and struggling academically will nearly double from 10 percent to 18 percent.

Under District 3's new plan, middle schools must reserve a quarter of their seats for low-income students who have low grades and low test scores. Previously, many of the highest-performing students were concentrated in the most popular middle schools, which were also attended largely by middle class and white children.

As in District 15, some of the middle schools in District 3 that have long educated the highest share of low-income and academically struggling students will be soon to home to more economically and academically diverse classrooms.

At P.S. 180 in Harlem, for example, the current student body is nearly 70 percent poor and low-performing; that percentage will drop to 40 percent when school opens this fall.

Still, Ms. Berger said, “the work is not done. We know it’s not just about admissions, it’s about the students’ experience in the schools.”

Eliza Shapiro is a reporter covering New York City education. She joined The Times in 2018. Eliza grew up in New York City and attended public and private schools in Manhattan and Brooklyn. @elizashapiro

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