The Department of Education has not updated its zone maps to reflect zoning changes on the Upper East Side, lower Manhattan and the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, so parents who call 311 to find out the name of their neighborhood school to register their kindergartners may get inaccurate information, Insideschools has learned. Schools affected on the Upper East Side are PS 158,PS 290, PS 151 and a new school, PS 527 which will open in September on East 91st Street in the Our Lady of Grace building. Schools affected in lower Manhattan are PS 89, PS 276, PS 397 and a new school, Peck Slip, which will open in the DOE headquarters in September.

In Brooklyn, PS 180, PS 164, PS 105, PS 69, PS 160, PS 163 and PS 200 in District 20 were also rezoned.

In December, the District 2 Community Education Council (CEC), responsible for zoning, approved new school zones, effective this fall, to ease overcrowding and published them on its website. However, the 311 operators rely on the DOE maps for the current school year--not the maps that will be in effect in September--said Elizabeth Rose, the DOE official in charge of planning new schools. "It's definitely challenging," Rose told Insideschools.

Parents must apply to kindergarten by March 2 and parent coordinators who are handling kindergarten enrollment are frustrated by the confusion. Parents who mistakenly believe they have the right to enroll in a school arrive with documents proving their address, only to be told they were given bad information and must register at a different school.

"Families are definitely angry," said Erica Welden, parent coordinator for PS 276. "Some of them are very upset because they bought a home to be in our zone. I've emailed the enrollment office and I called 311 to tell them. Hopefully they are working on updating them soon."

Laurie Windsor, president of CEC 20 which approved the rezoning of its schools, said Brooklyn parents tend to rely on their schools rather than 311 for information, and she has not heard of misinformation being given out.

Our advice: call your neighborhood school and don't rely on 311 for information, at least for the now.

Click here to download a PDF of the Upper East Side zone map and here to download the downtown Manhattan zone map. Still to come: the map showing zoning changes in several District 20 neighborhoods, including Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, Bath Beach and Sunset Park.