Pre-K information sessions got underway this week, for parents of children who will turn 4 in 2009. As noted in prior posts, the application will be online this year, and both the application and school directory will be available starting this Friday, March 6. There's another session tonight at Brooklyn Tech, and tomorrow evening at John Adams High School in Queens (see the full schedule here).

Brooklyn blogger and schools consultant Joyce Szuflita posted a detailed report on a pre-K session she attended. Notably, this year families may apply to more schools than they could last year, and they can see the number of applications each school received in the first application round last year and the total number of seats available. Even though it's not detailed enough to know how families ranked the schools -- which were the most popular and which were the most reliable fall-backs -- any information that gives parents some context for their child's application (and the odds of admission) is more than welcome.

Another change to gladden the hearts of parents citywide: This year, applications will not be mailed to Pennsylvania for processing. DOE representatives repeated "we'll be processing them at Central" -- although the exact destination can't be known until the applications are published.

On Friday, we'll take some time to walk through the application. Stay tuned.