Let me preface this by saying, I am *not* an expert! However, I have done a lot of research (like most parents I suspect), and have also chatted with friends who went through this process last year.
If your child didn’t receive a placement in this first round, do not give up hope! That said, you should start laying the groundwork for non-public school care. Check out CBOs (community based organizations), either near your home or workplace. See if they have space. In some cases, they’ll keep your kid for the full day for an extra fee, which means you won’t have to figure out how to pick up your kid at 3 p.m.
If you’re hellbent on getting a free UPK placement…call the schools you’re interested in. Be prepared to be blown off, but do everything you can to forge a personal relationship with someone at the school–a parent coordinator, an administrator, etc. Without being too desperate (or creepy!), explain how strongly you feel about your child attending that particular school and ask if you could call in the fall to see if a space suddenly ends up vacant. A parent coordinator once told me, “Call the first week of September. There’s always at least one kid who doesn’t show up.”
In addition, apply for round 2. I don’t have the statistics on how many kids are placed during that round but some must be. I assume you’ll be told which schools still have space, and hopefully one of them will be a good fit.
Lastly, check InsideSchools.org for updates and info. No other site has such comprehensive news about the NYC public school system.
Good luck!
I freely admit that this post is a personal rant. And I figure any other parent waiting for the DOE’s UPK lottery results will understand why. This is maddening! First we were told that we’d be informed of our child’s placement, if any, the week of May 18, with an assurance that those of us who applied online would get an email. Monday came and we did get an email…saying we’d find out at the end of the week of May 18. Guess what? It’s the end of the week (unless they mean Sunday?!) and we’re going into a three-day weekend and we still haven’t heard word one (or rather, I haven’t and neither have any of my friends. Maybe we’re just unpopular?)
I know the folks at the DOE are overwhelmed and doing the best they can…but it’s really just not good enough. Results for the TAG tests were late, as were middle-school placements. I won’t even go into the whole West Village kindergarten debacle. How are we supposed to have any faith in the public school system if we can’t even get our kids into the institutions?
Update: According to a user comment on InsideSchools.org, UPK placements will go out next week. This is unofficial of course. “I just wrote to the DOE about Pre-K notification and was sent this response: “You will receive your Pre-K information next week.”
So…as we go into a holiday weekend, I ask my fellow parents in the dark to vent below! You know you want to…
Update II: So the emails (at least for some folks) have gone out. Everyone I know received notice around 7 p.m. (who knew the DOE worked that late?) My child was lucky and received a full-day UPK placement. We realize how incredible this is. How did everyone else fair?
