Match Day: First Children Accepted To City’s New Full-Day Pre-K Programs

June 5, 2014

Video available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92DcMEDX1yU

Mayor de Blasio delivers admissions news to a parent in Flatlands, whose child was accepted to P.S. 203

City urges parents to apply for one of the 25,000 high-quality full-day seats at Community-Based Early Childhood Centers

NEW YORK—A year and a half after he first put forward his plan for free, full-day pre-K for every child in New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio today announced the first wave of acceptances to the City’s expanded pre-K programs. As part of the expansion, 4,300 new full-day public school seats were available for families this year. In total, offer letters went out to parents today for more than 20,000 high-quality full-day pre-K seats in public schools across the five boroughs. To mark the occasion, the Mayor welcomed a father and his 3-year-old daughter to the Floyd Bennett School (P.S. 203) in Flatlands, at which the family was offered a pre-K seat for the coming school year.

The Department of Education is sending notifications to parents today, indicating whether families who applied by April 23 had received an offer to a public school program. The education department urged all parents—including those who did not receive an offer to a public school program—to apply to programs open at Community-Based Early Childhood Centers, which will offer more than 25,000 high-quality, full-day pre-K seats this September. For the first time ever, parents can apply to CBECCs online at nyc.gov/prek, where information on each program is available. All families who applied to public school programs also received an application for CBECCs in the mail.  

“This is a big, big day for families and for all of us committed to giving every child the best possible start in life. Today is a huge milestone—but it’s not the end of the road. There are hundreds of incredible community-based programs ready to provide a great pre-K experience, and we want every parent to take advantage of all the new choices out there,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Parents who received an offer to a public school pre-K program have until June 20 to register with the school. Additional full-day public school seats will be announced in the coming weeks.

Among public-school pre-K programs:

• 19,689 children were matched to a full-day seat, compared to 14,407 last year
• Only 3 percent of full-day seats were unfilled, compared to 9.5 percent last year
• 45 percent of applicants to pre-K programs were matched with their first choice
• An additional 18 percent of applicants were matched to one of their other ranked choices
• 37 percent of applicants could not be matched to a program, but will receive assistance applying to high-quality community-based early childhood center programs within their neighborhoods

To find a free full-day pre-K in your neighborhood and receive alerts and information, visit nyc.gov/prek or text prek to 877877.