More city students are applying to and being offered admissions to the most selective public high schools. More than 5,400 students were accepted to Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Tech and the six other schools but only five percent of those offered admission were Hispanic and six percent were black.

This is a slight decrease from last year, and the year before that.

A total of 47 percent of those offered seats are Asian, a percentage that continued to grow. Whites make up 23 percent.

A department of education spokesman says:

"We have worked to improve outreach to communities and schools where participation has historically been low, including hosting parent workshops about the specialized high school admissions process," a Department of Education spokesman said. "We are constantly working to improve these efforts, but outreach alone is not the answer – we also must ensure students taking the exam are receiving a high-quality education in elementary and middle school so more of them can access our specialized high schools.”

Students began receiving notification today and the deadline to accept is February 28.

Meanwhile the city is holding a high school fair on Saturday and Sunday for students and families to explore its hundreds of schools. The fair takes place at the Martin Luther King campus behind Lincoln Center.

Reporting by Beth Fertig