Amount Of Preschool Seats For 3-Year-Olds Quadruples, City Says

NEW YORK, NY — The Department of Education has offered seats in pre-kindergarten classes to four times as many 3-year-olds as last year as the city's early education programs grow. More than 3,200 families got offers to attend so-called "3K" classes when they expand to four new school districts this fall, up from 793 last year, officials said Wednesday.

Combined with about 2,000 kids in the city's EarlyLearn child care program, more than 5,000 3-year-olds will attend pre-kindergarten in the next school year — about half the number that applied.

"Demand is skyrockting, and we know that it's going to keep growing and we know that as we make this program stonger, more and more parents are going to want to be a part of it," Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

The mayor's office said 9,468 familes from all 32 school districts applied for seats in the 3K program, which complements the city's free pre-kindergarten program for 4-year-olds.

The classes launched last fall in District 23 in Brownsville, Brooklyn and the District 7 in the South Bronx, where applications have increased 50 percent since last year, de Blasio said. Every family that applied in those two districts will get a seat this fall, the mayor's office said.

The 3K classes will start this fall in District 4 in Harlem, District 5 in East Harlem, District 16 in Bedford-Stuyvesant and District 27 in southeast Queens. The program is set to expand to another six districts by the 2020-21 school year.

The demand for seats this year shows the need for additional funding to bring 3K to every school district by the 2021-22 school year, city officials said. The city plans to spend $203 million to launch the program in the first 12 districts but needs state and federal money to expand it further.

"Four times more 3-K offers means four times as many children who will get a critical start to their education, but it’s clear that we need more seats," schools Chancellor Richard Carranza said in a statement.

Research has shown two full years of preschool help kids to better in school later on and improves their social outcomes. The city says its free pre-K program saves families an average of $10,000 a year on child care costs.

(Lead image: Mayor Bill de Blasio visits a pre-kindergarten class for 3-year-olds in the South Bronx on Wednesday. Photo by Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office)