Parents Urge Action After 63 Kids On Waitlist At Queens School

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS -- Like most parents, there are times Vi Chan wishes her 4-year-old daughter could stay little forever.

The thought of sending her daughter off to kindergarten this fall fills the Forest Hills mother with mixed emotions. She's happy, she's nostalgic, she's nervous – and she's worried that her daughter might not even get a spot in her local school.

Chan is among the parents of 63 children reportedly waitlisted to start kindergarten at P.S. 196 Grand Central Parkway next fall, the elementary school that they're zoned for.

"As a parent that is very nerve-racking, because we're not sure how they're going to be able to clear the waitlist when it's now 63 children," Chan told Patch.

Chan is among more than 30 parents who signed a Change.org petition demanding P.S. 196 do something about the overcrowding that parents say has plagued the school for years. The petition, "Solve Overcrowding: All PS 196 Zoned Kids Must Have A Seat At PS196," has garnered nearly 200 signatures since it launched on Monday.

"We have found ourselves in the unfortunate position to contact our district and city officials and school administrators about the reoccurring waitlist problem for incoming Kindergarten students," the petition read.

"In both 2015 and 2017 there have been groups of devoted parents and community supporters that have petitioned over the same cause and unfortunately we are forced to do the same."

Only this year, parents say it's gotten worse. In addition to a longer waitlist – up from 57 students last year –the school now refuses to tell parents where they stand, Chan said. She said not knowing her place on the list has made it difficult to decide whether to hold out hope for a spot or enroll her daughter elsewhere.

"I'd like to plan ahead, so not having a number is ridiculous to me," Chan said. "I cannot plan anything right now because I don't know where we stand."

The NYC Department of Education did not immediately return requests for comment from Patch.

The petition claims that rather than working to solve the overcrowding that's plagued Forest Hills schools, the DOE places the burden on the parents to get their children into schools outside their zones. It leaves them with commutes "up to 45 minutes each way" and waiting "months to find out if their children have been accepted into their zoned school," some parents said.

"Forest Hills is a very overcrowded community, and the majority of us in this area are families," Chan said. "This issue has been happening for the last few years, so I don't understand why no action was taken.

"There could be so many possible solutions but nothing is done."

That's why, in drafting the petition for their children to attend P.S. 196, parents came up with a handful of their own short- and long-term solutions.

Their first is to temporarily scrap the elementary school's Pre-Kindergarten program and replace it with another kindergarten class. Parents argued that while kindergarten is mandatory for all children in NYC schools, Pre-K is not.

"In relying on this regulation, we do not accept the waitlist status of our Kindergarten children while there is a Pre-K class at P.S. 196," the petition read.

Parents' other temporary solutions include: Converting some of the school's cluster classrooms into kindergarten classrooms, leasing space outside of the P.S. 196 building to relieve some of the main building's overcrowding, and scrapping the Pre-K program at the neighboring P.S. 303 Academy For Excellence Through the Arts.

"The additional Kindergarten class that could be added at P.S. 303 would likely accept children from the P.S. 196 zone, which would shorten the Kindergarten waitlist at P.S. 196," the parents wrote.

On the topic of P.S. 303, parents suggested as a long-term solution the DOE eliminate the school's district-wide lottery and convert it into a zoned school.

"While the idea of a specialized school focusing on the arts is a wonderful idea, making it a zoned school could alleviate much of the community’s issues with overcrowding and would prevent 196 from dealing with having to add on classes in later grades," the petition read.

Parents concluded their letter with demands that their children be able to attend their zoned school come November, and that the decision come in a timely manner.

But until they hear back, parents like Chan are left wondering, waiting and planning around the uncertain future.

"I'll either go to Rego Park, which is very far away from me, or I'll just sit and wait for a miracle to happen," she said.

Lead photo via Google Maps.