Trying to simplify the often bewildering process of enrolling children in prekindergarten and kindergarten classes in New York City and to make it more fair, Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein announced Wednesday that he would standardize applications and deadlines citywide.
For years, there has been a patchwork of admissions criteria and timetables in neighborhoods across the city, often making it difficult for parents to find out where and how to get their children into their first public school classrooms. Parents have traded stories about sleeping in tents outside a school to get a child enrolled in a coveted first-come-first-served program. Others have spent hours begging with a principal in the late spring to have a child admitted for the fall.
In a statement on Wednesday, the city called the current process “confusing, unfair and difficult for families to navigate.”
“We need to replace the numerous rules and timelines with a single, simple, fair process,” Mr. Klein said in the statement. “Every family will receive the same information about their prekindergarten options and will have the same opportunity to choose a program that’s right for their child. We owe it to families to make their transition to school as friendly as possible.”
Under the new plan, which will go into effect for prekindergarten this year and for kindergarten next year, parents will be required to submit a standard application by the end of March and will be notified where their child has been accepted in early May.
The Education Department will place students in five categories for admission. For example, top priority will go to students applying to programs in the school to which they are geographically assigned. Students who have no prekindergarten classes in their assigned school but live in the district will receive secondary priority. Students who apply for a program at a school outside their borough will have the lowest priority.
Within each category, siblings of students already enrolled in the school will receive priority.
Mr. Klein has often criticized various admissions policies for the city’s public schools, saying they favor children from certain neighborhoods and those with well-connected parents. In October, he announced a plan to limit the city’s gifted and talented programs to students who score in the top 5 percent on an admissions test.
While prekindergarten and kindergarten admissions have been less complicated and contentious than those for gifted programs, parents still routinely complain about navigating a labyrinth of programs. It can take hours or even days to find out where to find enrollment applications or where programs are located. (On the Education Department’s Web site Wednesday evening, a link for more information about prekindergarten programs with vacancies did not work.)
“It is true that in the past these programs operated as individual fiefdoms — some applications were due as early as October and November, others not until April,” said Clara Hemphill, who has written several guides to the city’s best public schools. But Ms. Hemphill also said that previously many principals used their discretion to admit students who could not afford to be in private preschool.
“In the past it was always thought that the process was unfair and that well-heeled parents got a better crack than others,” Ms. Hemphill said. “This may be more fair, or it may also be more unfair and bureaucratic.”
Lisa B. Donlan, president of the District 1 parent council, which represents schools in parts of the Lower East Side, said the centralized system would eliminate the ability of local schools to establish ways of allocating seats for schools in high demand. District 1, for example, for years relied on a system to ensure that popular schools were racially and economically diverse. That system slowly eroded in the last several years, after the mayor took control of the schools.
“When local communities have certain values and history, they can’t be met by this one-size-fits-all approach,” Ms. Donlan said, adding that the parent leaders in the district had been pressing education officials for a definitive policy.
But many parents have more concerns with the city’s admissions calendar, because private preschool programs typically require parents to apply and enroll their children several months earlier than the public schools.
“In my mind, the problem is that there’s all these bureaucracies and timelines that are more distant from the parents they are supposed to be serving,” said Jennifer Freeman, a member of the District 3 Community Education Council. “Anybody who is considering staying at their preschool or going to a public school has no way of considering both.”
