Heads-up, pre-K families: The Department of Education announced today that it will email or snail-mail placement results to city parents late this week. Although they’re not saying precisely when communications will go out, “the end of this week” sounds pretty committal. Families who applied online will receive word by email and letter; others will receive word just by USPS.
If you choose to accept an offer, you’ll need to register between Tuesday, May 26 and Monday, June 8 at the school your child will attend. Families whose children would have gone to pre-K at PS 3 or PS 41, we’re asking where you’ll register (the schools or the new program site) and will report details. For all families, we’d suggest calling the specific school to confirm their registration hours, to minimize time away from work (and frustration).
Failure to register means giving up the offer of a pre-K seat for your child.
Questions, concerns, and comments on the pre-K process are invited by the DOE at ES_Enrollment@schools.nyc.gov. If you write in, please let us know whether and when there’s a response to your email; last year, communications shortfalls plagued the process, which we hope, for everyone’s sake, will not be the case this year.
The students waitlisted for kindergarten at Manhattan schools PS 3 and PS 41 will be able to register at one of these schools for class this September — but the pre-K students promised seats for next year will not be able to attend the schools. PS 3 and PS 41 have been directed to close their pre-K classes to make room for more kindergarten students.
“We canceled our pre-K,” said a staff member at PS 41, who asked not to be named. “It was a decision made with the DOE…We had no choice. The space is so limited, and the kindergarten kids needed space. That’s the decision that was made.”
Principal Lisa Siegman of PS 3 said that she did not have any official confirmation. Unlike pre-K students, who stay in their classroom, kindergarten students move to the cafeteria, gym, and other specialty classrooms. Siegman expressed safety concerns, citing crowding, a complicated split-lunch schedule, and other logistical difficulties that may result from increasing the number of kindergarten classes.
PS 41 began to make calls to parents of pre-K students, who now have to scramble for pre-K seats in nearby public schools or find scarce (and costly) spots at private pre-Ks. “We got word, and we got on the phone,” the PS 41 staffer said. “We would love to have some solution or options for our families.”
DOE sources say they plan to release more news in the next few hours with “very specific details about the wait lists in Districts 2 and 3.” Stay tuned for updates.
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