September is a long way away, but if your child turns five in 2012 it's about time to apply to elementary school. Applications are available at each school Jan. 9 and are due March 2. You must submit an application, even if you are applying to your zoned school.

According to the timeline on the Department of Education's website, children will receive their assignments the week of March 19 - 23. Exceptions: students eligible for Gifted & Talented programs will get their assignments in May, and those applying to charter schools will find out if they have won a seat after lotteries are held in April.

There are priorities for admission, with highest going to siblings of kids already attending, and lowest to kids from outside the district, with no siblings in attendance. The majority of kindergartners do attend their neighborhood schools but because of over-crowding in some neighborhoods there is no guarantee of admission to your zoned school. If there are more applicants than spaces available, a lottery is held. If you are not given a space in your zoned school, you are assured of a space in another district school and your child may receive busing. Space permitting, you can return to the zoned school in 1st grade or later.

Children with special needs also go through the general application process, with the anticipation that most schools should be able to offer needed special education services. The DOE is hosting a series of kindergarten orientation meetings for families of kids with disabilities, beginning on Nov. 29 and running through mid-December. Some sessions will be conducted in Spanish, Haitian Creole, Chinese, and Bengali. See the schedule here. Children eligible for District 75 programs serving kids with severe disabilities in a highly specialized environment will receive a placement right after their IEP meetings in the spring.

The admissions timeline for G&T admissions is significantly later than general kindergarten admissions. Families who signed up in October to have their children tested for G&T programs will be assigned January or February testing dates by mid-December. The results of the tests will not be sent to families until mid-April, a month after general kindergarten assignments are made. Families have until April 20 to submit applications to specific G&T programs and they won't learn where they have been assigned until late May. See the timeline here.

There is yet another deadline for families who apply to charter schools. Most charter schools accept applications until April 1 and hold admissions lotteries shortly thereafter. The admissions calendar can be confusing to parents just entering the public school system and can lead to long waiting lists at some schools and uncertainty as to where children will be attending kindergarten even late in the summer for  some families.

Can the DOE simplify admissions? Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer thinks so. In a letter to Chancellor Walcott, he suggested that the the DOE standardize applications and put them online, create kindergarten directories for each district, and improve the timeline for notifying parents about acceptances.

Most districts do not host kindergarten fairs introducing the schools to families, leaving it up to parents to find out about open houses and tours on their own. The exception is District 1, on the Lower East Side which has no zoned schools. District 1 is hosting a kindergarten fair on Dec. 8 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at PS 20.

For more dates and events, see the DOE's calendar.