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More NYC families get top 3-K choices New York City has extended 99,921 offers for 3-K and Pre-K for the upcoming school year, with more families receiving offers to one of their top choice programs and average travel distances decreasing across the five boroughs. In January, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Gov. Kathy Hochul unveiled the city’s first steps toward universal child care, announcing the launch of 2-K, expansion of Pre-K and an aggressive focus on expanding 3-K access so families could find care in their own neighborhoods. Those efforts, made possible by a more than $1.2 billion investment from the state to support early childhood care and education, have already resulted in more f amilies receiving offers to their preferred 3-K program and fewer families ending up on waitlists, city officials said. Across the five boroughs, families are traveling shorter Kamar SamuelS distances, more children are receiving offers to their topSchools Chancellor choice programs, and fewer parents are being forced to choose between unaffordable private care and leaving the city they love,” Mamdani said in a news release. “This is what government excellence looks like.” Fewer families this year received placements at programs they did not rank on their applications. For those 3-K families, the average distance between home and program decreased by .85 miles, or roughly 17 city blocks. That distance is expected to decrease further as families express interest in the additional 3-K seats added, including more than 700 new seats announced yesterday that will be available through the waitlist process. “Every child deserves a strong start, and every parent deserves to know their child has a safe, high-quality place to learn and grow,” Hochul said in the release. “More families are able to access the 3-K opportunities they want, and provides universal 3-K and Pre-K to 100,000 families across New York City, giving more parents access to affordable child care in their own communities and setting up the next generation for success.” This year, the percentage of families receiving their top 3-K choice increased from 65 to 70 percent, while the percentage receiving one of their top three 3-K choices increased from 80 to 84 percent. “Our young children are the future, and New York City’s future just got brighter,” Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels said in the release. “Because of this collective effort we are putting nearly 100,000 children on a path to success close to home.”
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ur young children are the future, and New York City’s future just got brighter.
Ed Reed/Mayoral Photography Office.
The city has extended 99,921 offers for 3-K and Pre-K for the upcoming school year. Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani at the Garden School in Queens on May 19. While every family received a seat offer, the percentage of families receiving placements at programs not listed on their application decreased from 15 to 12 percent, helping ensure more families received offers they could realistically accept, city officials noted. Last year, 720 families received 3-K offers outside their home borough, with most placements located more than three miles from home. This year, fewer than 200 families received out-of-borough offers, and all placements are within three miles from home. Many of those families will also have an opportunity to receive a close-to-home placements through the waitlist process following the more than 700 newly available 3-K seats. In April, the Mamdani joined New York City public school students to open seven previously vacant childcare sites, creating 240 new 3-K seats. That announcement followed the administration’s addition of more than 1,000 new 3-K seats across 56 zip codes, now more than 2,000, as well as the opening of a previously vacant childcare
center on the Upper East Side. On May 18, Mamdani said that the city had doubled those efforts, adding 2,000 3-K seats across all five boroughs and confirming that the ninth new childcare center will open this fall in Columbia Waterfront. Mamdani also announced that the primary model for 2-K programming will be full-day and full-year. This fall, the city will launch the first 2,000 free 2-K seats in the City’s history. Applications for 2-K enrollment open June 2. — Jeffrey Bessen