{"id":295693,"date":"2026-07-14T18:10:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T18:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/295693\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T18:10:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T18:10:11","slug":"nyc-officials-expand-pre-k-special-education-programs-in-time-for-new-school-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/295693\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC officials expand pre-K special education programs in time for new school year"},"content":{"rendered":"

Five special education programs<\/a> will expand into the city\u2019s pre-K classrooms for the first this fall, city officials announced on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Through a $67.5 million investment, the expansion will make available the city\u2019s Nest, Horizon, AIMS, Path and ACES programs in 14 school districts across the five boroughs.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cMaking pre-K truly universal means that no family has to go without just because their child needs a little extra help. And it means that having an Individualized Education Plan [IEP] does not deny your child the same opportunities as their peers to get a strong start in life,\u201d Mayor Zohran Mamdani said at a July 14 press conference announcing the investment in Manhattan.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The expansion will help students with autism and developmental delays can attend school closer to their homes.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will bring new pre-school specialized education programs to families in every single borough,\u201d the mayor said.\n<\/p>\n

New Pre-K special education programs aim to help more kids be successful<\/p>\n

Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels said the five programs are popular and highly effective in improving student success<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am proud that right here in NYC public schools, we lead the nation in providing autistic learners with 97% of our Nest and Horizon students ultimately graduating high school,\u201d Samuels said. \u201cIn our AIMS programs, our students with intensive communication needs are excited to come to school and boast much higher attendance rates when in community schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

The chancellor explained that ACES programs were initially launched as a direct response to families advocating for their children with significant intellectual disabilities to learn critical life skills alongside their peers in an inclusive school setting.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, families are proud to share that their children are thriving and building meaningful with peers without disabilities as well,\u201d Samuels said.
\n\"manNYC Public Schools Chancellor Kamar SamuelsPhoto by Lloyd Mitchell\n<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Samuels said parents have seen \u201ctremendous growth\u201d from the Path program, which provides intensive social, emotional, and behavioral support for students with disabilities in specialized classrooms.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Samuels also said the multi-million-dollar investment will give younger children with autism and other disabilities the same \u201chigh-quality, specialized instruction that has delivered real results\u201d for older students.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis investment is about strengthening the foundation and when we get early childhood education right, we set children up for a lifetime of success,\u201d Samuels said.\n<\/p>\n

The programs will be held in both inclusive and specialized classroom settings, officials said. \u00a0\n<\/p>\n

Programs will be held in the following school districts:\n<\/p>\n

Manhattan<\/p>\n

District 2: PS 042 Benjamin Altman\u00a0
\nDistrict 5: PS 133 Fred R. Moore\u00a0
\nDistrict 6: PS 005 Ellen Lurie\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bronx<\/p>\n

District 7: Academy of Exploratory Arts\u00a0
\nDistrict 9: PS 028 Mount Hope, P.S. 058, P.S. 070 Max Schoenfeld, P.S. 063X Author\u2019s Academy, and Lucero Elementary School\u00a0
\nDistrict 10: P.S. 310 Marble Hill, PS 023 The New Children\u2019s School, Rose Hill Pre-K Center\u00a0
\nDistrict 11: P.S. 068 Bronx, P.S. 111 Seton Falls, P.S. 121 Throop\u00a0
\nDistrict 12: P.S. 006 West Farms, Samara Community School\u00a0<\/p>\n

Brooklyn<\/p>\n

District 14: P.S. 147 Isaac Remsen\u00a0
\nDistrict 15: P.S. 015 Patrick Daly, P.S. 024, P.S. 958\u00a0
\nDistrict 20: D20 Pre-K Center\u00a0
\nDistrict 21: P.S. 212 Lady Deborah Moody\u00a0<\/p>\n

Queens<\/p>\n

District 30: P.S. 152 Gwendoline N. Alleyne School, P.S. 171 Peter G. Van Alst\u00a0<\/p>\n

Staten Island<\/p>\n

District 31: P.S. 054 Charles W. Leng\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Five special education programs will expand into the city\u2019s pre-K classrooms for the first this fall, city officials…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295694,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[67,22925,9,56,63,65,64,87002,46114,112671],"class_list":["post-295693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-education","tag-mayor-zohran-mamdani","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-nyc-schools-chancellor-kamar-samuels","tag-pre-k","tag-special-education-programs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}