A new school year is bringing thousands of free pre-K seats to Long Island families as New York continues its push toward universal pre-K.<\/p>\n
In the South Huntington School District, every eligible 4-year-old who wants a pre-K seat can now get one at the brand-new Silas Wood Pre-K Center.<\/p>\n
The expansion means families no longer have to rely on a lottery or waitlist for a spot.<\/p>\n
For parents, the program can also mean significant savings on child care.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor working parents like myself, that often meant continuing to pay for daycare,\u201d parent Giovanna Bucino said. \u201cHaving access to this pre-K program has personally saved my family thousands of dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n
Silas Wood Pre-K Center Principal Renee Schumm said the program is designed to give children a strong start while easing some of the financial pressure on families.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a step into where the Wildcat journey begins,\u201d Schumm said. \u201cIt\u2019s their foot into the school district and this wonderful community they live in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced the expansion Wednesday, highlighting the state\u2019s $560 million investment in pre-K programs.<\/p>\n
Eighty-four school districts across Long Island are adding pre-K seats this year as New York works toward making the program universal for every 4-year-old.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany are offering pre-K to 4-year-olds for the first time ever,\u201d Hochul said. \u201cSo, whether it\u2019s expanding the program or first time doing this, this is the year everything changes for these kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hochul said New York is on track to make universal pre-K possible for every child by fall 2028.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new school year is bringing thousands of free pre-K seats to Long Island families as New York…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337832,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-337831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337831","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=337831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}