Department of Education officials proposed to close or phase-out 12 struggling public schools and to eliminate the middle grades from 3 others today — with more proposed closures expected tomorrow.

The list includes three elementary schools, three stand-alone middle schools, five high schools and a grade 6-to-12 school.

The annual announcement has typically been met with strong opposition from parents and teachers, and now sets off a three-month process that will culminate in a Panel for Educational Policy vote on the closures in February.

“These are never easy decisions, but when a school has failed to serve its students well year after year — even after receiving additional supports — we have a responsibility to provide students with better options,” said schools chancellor Dennis Walcott.

The proposed closures are:

(Elementary) PS 19 and Gen. Chappie James Elementary School of Science in Brooklyn; PS 14 in Staten Island

(Middle) Satellite Three, Middle School for the Arts and JHS 296 in Brooklyn

(High) Legacy School for Integrated Studies and Manhattan Theatre Lab HS in Manhattan; Gateway School for Environmental Research and Technology and Jane Addams HS for Academic Careers in The Bronx; International Arts Business School in Brooklyn

(Secondary) Academy of Business and Community Development in Brooklyn

It also includes the elimination of the middle grades at PS 161 in Brooklyn, which will retain its elementary school grades, and at the Academy for Scholarship and Entrepreneurship in The Bronx and Brooklyn Collegiate: A College Board School — which will both keep their high school grades.

The United Federation of Teachers has filed a lawsuit in each of the past two years challenging the closures, winning one year and losing the next.

They threatened legal action in response to today’s announcement if they find that state law was violated, and UFT President Michael Mulgrew characterized the move as a “stunning failure of DOE management.”

“Rather than doing the hard work of helping struggling schools, the DOE tries to close them, making sure that the hardest-to-educate kids end up concentrated in the next school on the closure list,” he said.