 More than 80% of St. Joseph's students qualify for the federally funded free or reduced lunch program, and more than 50% do not have an English speaker at home.Although St. Joseph is a catholic school, only 30% of its student body are Catholics.This relatively low number of Catholic students is part of a wider trend among New York City’s parochial schools in which they are shifting away from educating working class Catholics (Irish and Italian) and moving towards becoming viable educational alternatives in New York's African-American and Latino inner-city communities.