Through an award from the New York City Department of Education, the Y Early Childhood Department is excited to be able to offer full-day, tuition-free Pre-K for All for four-year-olds beginning in the 2017-18 school year! This award was made possible through the efforts of many of our neighborhood families in partnership with the staff at the Y who worked together to meet a growing community need for high-quality pre-kindergarten programming.
For the last fifteen years, the Y Nursery School’s Universal Pre-Kindergarten program — the DOE has changed the name of this program from UPK to Pre-K for All — was a half-day afternoon class from 1 - 3:30 pm that was incorporated into a full-day schedule or was available as a stand-alone program. Although a recent expansion of full-day UPK was implemented through funding from the New York State Legislature, many families in the Washington Heights and Inwood areas who needed tuition-free, full-day programming were unable to find enough quality programs. As a result, earlier this year, families began a campaign to convert the Y’s half-day UPK spaces to full-day spaces.
Through an amazing and persistent effort that involved many phone calls and emails to decision-makers at the DOE and to our local politicians, as well as a letter-writing campaign, families were able to schedule a meeting at the Y with members of the DOE’s early childhood expansion team. At the meeting, parents of prospective four-year-olds worked to describe the community’s needs and how the Y would be able to meet those needs through the continued implementation of best practices for early childhood education. A power-point slide show developed by the parents provided statistical evidence and demonstrated need for quality programming in our neighborhood. The meeting ended with a neighborhood walk with the DOE team so that they would be more familiar with the lay-out of our community.
Following this persuasive meeting, in March of this year, the DOE agreed to allow the Y to apply for full-day Pre-K for All through a competitive process that involved a comprehensive written proposal and an on-site interview. As a result of this process, the Y was finally awarded 54 full-day seats and was able to allow families to apply in round-2 of the DOE admissions process. As per DOE priorities for admission, our currently enrolled families were given preference for Pre-K for All seats.
We are looking forward to the upcoming school year where we will be continuing to provide a warm and nurturing preschool program for all of our children, ages two through five, a program where teachers develop rich and creative units of study based on the students’ interests and where the arts are infused into the curriculum.
E ngotsoe ke Susan Herman, Director of Early Childhood Services
