UNIVERSAL PRE-KINDERGARTEN 

Early childhood education has benefits across a child’s lifetime, including raising academic achievement and increasing the chances that a child will successfully graduate from high school. As in previous years, the NYC Council is partnering with the NYC Department of Education (DOE), the NYC Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) and child care advocates across the five boroughs to help enroll four-year olds in FREE Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK).

There are several ways that families can get information about the nearest UPK program with available seats:
1. Call the Department of Education at (718) 935-2009
2. Go to the City’s website and search City Map for locations of child care and UPK sites nearest them.
• First go to http://gis.nyc.gov/doitt/nycitymap/
• Click on “Show Additional Data on Map”
• Zoom in on the neighborhood you want to search until “Universal Pre-K” is available to select.
3. DOE’s website provides an updated list of pre-k programs organized by school district with open seats. You can find that list here: http://schools.nyc.gov/ChoicesEnrollment/PreK/default.htm We recommend that parents call a program directly regarding open seats since there is a delay before a filled seat is reflected on the DOE website.

There are also additional services that children in ACS-contracted child care centers can receive if they qualify. Families interested in finding out if they qualify for subsidized services can use ACS’s web based Child Care Eligibility Wizard to see if they are eligible; this eligibility tool can be found at http://www.nyc.gov/html/acs/chidcare_eligibility/wizard.html.
Please feel free to contact Mathu Subramanian in the Policy Division at (212) 788–9194 or MSubramanian@council.nyc.gov if you or your staff have any questions.