More than 100 NYC high schools have enrolled students in “credit recovery” — a scheme increasingly criticized as a shoddy way to raise graduation rates, a new study reveals.

In a sample of 229 Department of Education high schools, 109 reported using such programs for students who had failed or never completed required classes, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute found in a study titled “Gotta Give ‘Em Credit.”

And eight of the 109 schools enrolled more than 20 percent of students in credit-boosting programs, according to 2015-16 data, the latest reported to the US Education Department. The national average was 8.1 percent.

At the top of the NYC list, Validus Preparatory Academy — a Bronx high school with 372 students, 97 percent Hispanic and black — reported a stunning 40 percent of its students in credit-recovery.

“It’s like some bulls–t way to get kids to pass,” an 11th-grader at the Bathgate Educational Campus told The Post. “Students start those when they see they don’t have enough credits to graduate.”

The “classes” are commercial online programs students do before or after the regular school day, they said.

“It’s an online course with a teacher in the room, but honestly it’s really easy to pass it,” said senior Jose Castillo, who needed credits after failing a sophomore English class. He said kids eat and chat while sitting at computers.

Mellanie Benito, a junior, is taking an online course for an algebra class she failed. “It’s helpful to get the credits,” she said, “but I was prepping for my Regents (exam) and didn’t feel the course helped me.”

Under DOE rules, students in online or makeup classes “must frequently interact with teachers.”

Validus principal Christophe Hibbert did not answer questions.

DOE spokeswoman Danielle Filson said Validus and Brooklyn’s Gotham Professional Arts Academy, which listed 25 percent of students in credit recovery, “do not currently offer” it, but the students can take online “course makeups.”

Three of the eight schools have since closed due to poor performance.

Based on the federal data, NYC schools “are much less likely” to use credit recovery than the nationwide rate of 69 percent of schools, the study found. But co-author Adam Tyner cautioned the data is “self-reported,” so may not give the full picture.

“All we can say is there may be some red flags,” Tyner said.

The Post has highlighted many cases of NYC credit schemes. In one the worst examples, hundreds of students at Dewey HS in Brooklyn were enrolled in sham “Project Graduation” classes that robbed them of their education, a state audit confirmed in March.