Your independent guide to NYC public schools

Kindergarten registration is underway at PS 118, a new District 15 school opening in September, designed to ease overcrowding at a few of the most popular Park Slope schools, including PS 321 and PS 107.

In fact incoming parents and Elizabeth Garroway, who is expected to be named principal, have already jointly decided to name the school after children's author Maurice Sendak, DNAInfo.com reports. It will be the Maurice Sendak Community School.

PS 118 will be moving into a former parochial school building, St. Thomas Aquinas, at 211 Eighth Street. That building has been occupied by PS 133, which will be moving back to its original location, with a newly constructed building, at 4th Avenue and Baltic. PS 118's zone was carved out of the western side of PS 321's zone, roughly comprising the area betweenThird and Fourth avenues and President and Sixth Street

Garroway, who has been an assistant principal at PS 321, is planning a multicultural approach for PS 118 "to prep students for college and the world," DNAInfo reports.

Parents have already started a Facebook page, PS 118 Founding Parents and are organizing to create a new playground and a garden. Families can meet with the principal and register for the school during her office hours at PS 133. Check the Facebook page for details. In addition to two kindergarten classes, PS 118 will get two much-needed pre-kindergarten classes, parents report.

Read more about the plans for PS 118 on DNAInfo.com and on the founding families website.

Want to find out how to apply for college financial aid? Trying to decide whether a community college is a better option than a four year school? Is there a free college counseling program in your neighborhood or borough?  NYC College Line, a website that officially launched Wednesday,  tackles these questions and more.

Funded by the Gates Foundation, NYC College Line provides resources to help New York City students get into and stay in college. It's a collaborative project between CUNY's Graduate NYC!, the City University of New York, the NYC Department of Education, and the Options Center of Goddard Riverside.The goal of the Graduate NYC! College Readiness & Success initiative is to double the number” of CUNY graduates by 2020. 

“We want students not just to get into college, but to be successful there," said schools chancellor Dennis Walcott in a press release. "NYC College Line will help us achieve both of those goals. It’s a win-win – for students, educators, and this city.”

Many public high schools have too few college counselors to meet the needs of seniors applying to college, and so NYC College Line may help breach the gap. It allows students to get quick answers to many typical questions. In addition to the resources listed online, users can log on and ask questions directly of experts and find out about upcoming events such as financial aid workshops or college fairs. There are also online training sessions for professionals.

Read more about the launch here and check out the new website here.

Families with children turning five years old in 2013 may apply to kindergarten beginning today, Jan. 22, through March 1. You must apply even if you want your child to attend your zoned school. In most districts, parents fill out an application at each school to which they are interested in applying. In districts 1, 7 and 23, which no longer have zoned schools, parents may apply online, on the phone or at borough enrollment offices.

For the first time this year, the Education Department produced hefty directories now online - one for each borough - of all elementary schools in the city. There is a page for each school, listing the school's address, phone number. the principal's email address, website and nearest public transportation. It also lists state test score results, Progress Report grades for the past two years, Quality Review scores and highlights from school surveys.

You can see at the top of each page whether a zoned school accepted any students from outside its zone for this school year -- a feature that is sure to be of interest to parents who are applying to multiple schools outside of their neighborhood. Be aware that some schools listed as not accepting students from outside the zone may have actually taken some in later in the summer or fall, as spaces became available. When you visit a school, make sure you ask whether they anticipate having room and how you can get on a waiting list if you are not accepted in the spring. The directory also notes those schools which had a waitlist for zoned students in June or September 2012.

Enrollment priorities for zoned and unzoned schools are spelled out, and you can see whether a school offers a dual language, magnet or G&T program and whether it is accessible for physically handcapped students. Each has a listing of all schools and programs in the city. Charter schools are listed as well.

Directories are available online. You can print out the entire borough directory (more than 200 pages long in some cases) or just your district's pages. Or, you might want to pick one up instead at a local school or enrollment office.

For the first time ever families in three school districts that no longer have zoned elementary schools may apply to kindergarten online, over the phone or in person at an enrollment offices, the Department of Education said this week.

District 1 on the Lower East Side has long been a "choice" district, with no zoned schools. In November, Community Education Councils (CECs) in two other small districts, District 7 in the South Bronx and District 23 in Brownsville, voted to do away with zoned elementary schools, exercising one of the few real powers that CECs have.

The DOE just centralized the application process in the three districts, making it similar to pre-kindergarten admissions. There is only one application, with parents rankings schools in order of preference. In the city's other 28 districts, parents apply for kindergarten individually at each school, even their zoned school.

"The single application is more convenient for all families," said Gentian Falstrom, director of elementary school enrollment for the DOE. Many children in districts 7 and 23 already attend schools outside their zone. Unlike neighborhoods in the city where the schools are overcrowded, many schools in the South Bronx and Brownsville have extra room for students.

The official kindergarten application period ---  yes, you do need to apply to kindergarten – begins on Jan. 22 and goes through 3 pm on March 1. If you’ve got a child turning five years old in 2013, there are a few things you need to know.

Kindergarten is now required in New York City for children turning five during the calendar year. Parents may opt to keep their child out until 1st grade but schools may not turn away any five year olds. Even if a school is overcrowded, a seat must be found in a nearby school.

Submit an application, even if you are applying to your zoned school. You'll need to submit several documents with proof of where you live. Don't know what your zoned school is? Call 311. You apply individually to each school; there is no centralized application as there is with pre-kindergarten. The exceptions are three districts of "choice" (more on those below).

The Department of Education announced Tuesday that it plans to close seven more schools -- mostly elementary and middle -- for poor performance. An additional two schools will lose their middle school grades: PS 156 in Queens and Academy for Social Action: A College Board School in Harlem, where the high school will remain open despite posting an F on its Progress Report.

The announcement brings to 24 the number of closures announced this week. Pending approval by the Panel on Education Policy, the schools will not accept new students, although current students will be allowed to stay until graduation for all except MS 45 and Freedom Academy which will close in June. New schools, with new leadership and new staff, will be housed in the old buildings.

Just four years ago, the Performance School in the South Bronx replaced another failing elementary school. But low test scores and attendance persisted at the school and it will be closed too. Fewer than 15 percent of the students met grade level standards on state math and reading exams in 2012.

About 32 low-performing schools were saved from the ax, including several large, historic high schools: Flushing High School in Queens, George Westinghouse in downtown Brooklyn, Boys and Girls High School in Bed Stuy, and DeWitt Clinton in the Bronx.   Although these schools were threatened with closure, after visits and conversations with school communities this fall, the DOE decided to develop what it calls an "action plan” to improve them instead. There is no guarantee that these schools will continue to survive, however: many of the schools on this year's closure list, last year were on the list to get "targeted action" for improvement.

Seventeen schools on a list of 60 targeted as "academically struggling" earlier this fall are now slated for closure, Deputy Schools Chancellor Marc Sternberg said today, with more school closures to be announced tomorrow. If approved, two of the schools would be closed at the end of the school year -- MS 45 in East Harlem and Freedom Academy in downtown Brooklyn --  the others would be phased out more slowly, with current students allowed to stay until graduation.

Three of the 17 schools are elementary schools, six are middle schools, seven are high schools and one, Choir Academy, serves grades 6-12. Most have previously been identified as troubled and at risk of being shut down. A few are large neighborhood high schools, such as Lehman in the Bronx and Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn, but others are small high schools, created as an alternative to huge zoned schools, such as Bread and Roses and Jonathan Levin High School for Media and Communications. All have test scores and graduation rates that are below the city average.

Sternberg said that the decision to close the schools was made after a "rigorous review of academic performance" this fall. "We expect success," he said. "We've listened to the community and provided comprehensive support services to these schools based on their needs. Ultimately, we know we can better serve our students and families with new options and a new start."

After announcing several major changes this fall in admissions' processes for gifted and talented programs, the city today reversed itself on the sibling policy. It will now give priority to siblings of students currently enrolled in elementary school G&T programs, even if their score is lower than other students who qualify.

This sibling preference policy reverts back to what it was for 2012 admissions. The Education Department said it reversed itself after receiving feedback from schools and parents, according to a letter sent today to parents of children in kindergarten through second grade who will be tested in January and February for next fall's G&T programs

The change will affect applicants for both citywide and district gifted programs as spelled out in the letter:

• "For Citywide programs, siblings scoring at or above the 97^th percentile will be placed first, by percentile rank. For district programs, siblings scoring at or above the 90^th percentile will be placed first, by percentile rank. After all eligible siblings have been placed, non-sibling applicants will be placed by percentile rank.
• In any case where there are multiple students with the same sibling priority and score, and not enough seats for all of them, offers will be made based upon a random assignment process."