Most families applying to pre-K got good news yesterday: A record 75 percent were accepted to their first choice school. But for others, there’s an agonizing wait ahead.
According to the Department of Education, all 66,756 students who applied by the March deadline were offered a seat through the Pre-K for All initiative. Still, about 150 schools had waitlists of at least 10 students. It’s unclear how many children were shut out, since they might be waitlisted at more than one school.
P.S. 196 in the Bronx had the longest waitlist this year, with 114 students. About 50 schools saw their waitlists shrink compared to the previous year, but that still left dozens of families shut out in some cases. At P.S. 228 Early Childhood Magnet School of the Arts in Queens, 97 students were waitlisted — compared with 119 last year.
All together, there are about 1,800 sites offering Pre-K for All, the city’s free preschool program for four-year-olds. The data only includes students who were put on a waitlist at their zoned pre-K. Community organizations that provide classes through the city’s Pre-K for All program are not reflected in the numbers.
Find your school by searching the list below. An “s” indicates that fewer than five students were waitlisted. An “n/a” means the school did not previously have a waitlist, or it wasn’t open last year.