Nearly 100,000 of New York City’s youngest students were offered seats in pre-K and 3-K programs over the last week — and Mayor Zohran Mamdani touted statistics showing they’re more likely to get a spot they prefer that’s closer to home.
“We’ve also reduced the average distance between a family’s home and their child care center by a third of a mile, also known as somewhere between 30 minutes and an hour, or the time it takes a toddler to walk six blocks,” Mamdani said.
What You Need To Know
Nearly 100,000 students received placements to pre-K and 3-K sites around the city, and, on average, they’re closer to home than last year
Still, some students were matched to classes in different boroughs, or at schools they did not list on their applications
Meanwhile, the city is opening up 700 more seats, some of which may be closer to home for families who can apply via waitlists
Seventy percent of families applying to 3-K received a spot at their top choice, up from 65% last year. And the percentage of kids getting a spot in one of their three top choices was 84%, up from 80%.
Still, not everyone got what they wanted. While every child was matched to a seat, 12% of 3-K applicants were assigned a spot at a school they had not even listed on their application. That was down from 15% the year before.
And while they’re better than a year ago, the commutes can be long for some: the average distance between a student’s home and their initial pre-K placement is 0.9 miles, and for 3-K, it’s just over a mile.
The city is hoping to reduce that distance even further: 700 new pre-K seats were added after the application deadline closed, and families can apply via waitlists. They may be closer to people’s homes.
That includes 63 pre-K and 3-K seats at a Brooklyn pre-K center where NY1 reported the city spent $12 million on renovations, and more than $5 million in rent since 2022 — but which was sitting empty.
“I have to be honest, there isn’t a great answer for the hold-up of a lot of these centers,” Mamdani said when asked by NY1 about the delay. “We are talking about childcare centers that were sitting dormant, sometimes for years, and New Yorkers would walk past them and ask themselves, how can I believe in this program if this center right here is gathering dust after we’ve spent millions of dollars in bringing it up to code?”
Parents who have been pushing for the city to open that pre-K center on Van Brunt Street said they’re thrilled that it’s finally going to happen and that it should make a big difference for families in the neighborhood.
Jessica Setton described the moment she heard from NY1 that the school on Van Brunt Street would open.
“My son, who’s, you know, turning three, comes into my bed almost every night. So he’s laying in bed next to me and I started crying like, oh my gosh, I have hope now,” she said.
Setton had added her son, Wally, to the waitlist for the school. In the meantime, he was offered a seat within her ZIP code — better than she expected, though it would either be a long walk or a bus ride.
“It’s not a few blocks away like the Van Brunt Street site would be,” she said. “But it’s, you know, much more manageable than some of the placements I heard from people already this morning.”
Setton said one parent in her son’s Brooklyn daycare was offered a seat in Manhattan’s Chinatown. City Hall said fewer than 200 students were offered seats outside of their borough, down from 720 a year ago. And this year, any placements in a different borough are less than three miles from a child’s home, the city added.
The number of parents who applied for pre-K and 3-K seats was about the same as last year, despite increased outreach urging more parents to apply. The mayor pointed to fear among immigrant communities, who he said are less likely to apply for government services, and to disinvestment by the prior administration.
Mamdani said he hopes parents getting spots closer to home will convince more people to opt-in next year.