From parentandme1

Re: When and how to learn about nyc schools?

Tue Jun 24, 2014 9:25 am (PDT) . Posted by:

“Tracey Keij-Denton” lieferacey

This is an excellent question, and one that I wondered about since I was pregnant with my first kid 5 years ago. After having gone through both Pre-K and K applications, I would say, if you want to be sure you are on the ball and not rushed, but you also want to exhale for a little bit and not worry, I would say summer of the year your kid turns 3. So if your kid was born in 2011, you’d start the research this summer. Your kid starts Kindergarten fall of 2016 and can start public Pre-k fall of 2015. The pre-k application will be due in February or March of 2015. So if you give yourself he summer to do research, you can plan to do the tours in the fall and not feel rushed. If you can’t make one tour, there will be another one. If you leave it until January scheduling can be a nightmare, especially for work I g parents.

As another poster explained, Pre-K is important because if your kid gets into the Pre-K they have priority for the school. My regret is when Wed toured schools I should have been looking at them for both the Pre-K and the elementary school, and perhaps taken more notes. You won’t cover everything, but you’ll know what questions to ask later and this list is very helpful for that.

Touring the public schools with Pre-k first will help you explore both, and then you’ve got another year to look at schools without Pre-Ks before the Kindergarten application process takes place in February of the year your kid turns 5.