By Kelsey Durham and Bill Parry
Mayor Bill de Blasio made two trips to Queens in the past week to discuss the next steps in providing pre-kindergarten for tens of thousands of children across the five boroughs.
The mayor hosted a roundtable with several pre-K teachers Tuesday afternoon at PS 239, at 17-15 Weirfield St. in Ridgewood, where he announced that parents would soon be receiving responses to pre-K applications they filled out for their children earlier this year ahead of the April 23 deadline.
De Blasio also visited the A to Z center, at 220-24 Jamaica Ave. in Queens Village, last Friday to announce that the city had approved more than 10,000 new full-day pre-K seats in privately run centers, known as community-based early childhood centers. The new batch of seats was approved by the city Panel for Educational Policy last week and brings the total number of slots to 25,000, less than half what the mayor has targeted for September.
“This site is one of the sites the seats for which were authorized last night,” de Blasio said last Friday. “This very location, the A to Z Center here in Queens, is now available to parents for applications starting right this minute. It’s happening as we speak.”
While the A to Z Center went from 20 full-day seats to 74, other neighborhoods will get more. Jamaica will get 500 seats, as will Flushing.
“In some of the neighborhoods that have the greatest need, you’re going to see extraordinary numbers of seats come to fruition,” de Blasio said.
The sites where community-based early childhood centers are located are posted online at nyc.gov/prek, and the mayor urged parents to apply by June 26 to find the best option for their child.
“Parents have the right to apply to as many locations as they want, there is no limit, so maximize your options,” de Blasio said. “Apply early, apply often at as many locations you can find.”
On Tuesday De Blasio said parents who applied earlier this year would soon be receiving letters letting them know whether they were accepted into their first choices. For those who were not, he said, parents can reapply at other locations until the June deadline.
“For those who weren’t accepted, we want to let them know that there are other options available and we urge them to apply,” the mayor said. “The most important thing is to apply and to apply now.”
The mayor also said during both announcements the city Department of Education would devote more personnel to inspections and quality control of the community-based centers.
“This is an extraordinarily large effort and we have resourced it accordingly to guarantee the quality control by putting a lot of personnel into quality control,” de Blasio said.
de Blasio said at last Friday’s conference that the announcement of the additional pre-K seats was a “big day for working families” across the city.
“We are giving thousands more children the right start in life, but the door we are opening depends on parents coming forward today to apply,” he said. “This is the most important decision any parent can make for their child, and we are giving parents the options they need to find the right program in their community.”
Reach reporter Bill Parry by e-mail at bparry@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.
