Funding Deadline Nears For City Pre-Ks
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The city is slated to lose millions of dollars in state funding Friday unless it somehow manages to find children for the thousands of unfilled prekindergarten seats that money would pay for. NY1's Lindsey Christ filed the following report.Like many pre kindergarten programs across the city, the class at Young Minds Day Care Center is undersubscribed this year. If classes aren't fully enrolled by Friday, the city will lose the state funding for all the unfilled spots.
"Now we have seven available slots that aren't filled and we have a deadline," Young Minds Day Care Center Director Carolie Mills-Skeete.
Last year, there were 3,200 unfilled pre-K seats by the end of the October deadline in which the city lost $35 million. This year, with just one day left for parents to sign up, there were more than 5,200 unfilled seats across all five boroughs.
In the past, the Department of Education has been criticized for not getting the word out enough about the free program, and for offering too many half-day seats, which aren't an option for many working parents. But this year, the DOE added a thousand extra full day slots, and more than 900 of the remaining seats are in full day programs. Officials say they have also worked extra hard to spread the word.
"This year we utilized a number of different sources to get out, we used City Hall, the City Council, 311, nyc.gov," said Recy Dunn of the Department of Education. "We also looked at some non traditionals resources. For example, craiglslist, through some social networking sites, through churches -- other ways to reach the parents."
Faculty at Young Minds have gone to street fairs, sent emails, and stopped people in the neighborhood with young children to see if they are interested. Students in the class say that not only have they learned important things, like how to spell their name, but that school is fun.
Officials aren't sure why so many of the seats are still empty, and they encourage parents to search the list of openings on the DOE website and consider programs outside of their immediate neighborhood.
Meanwhile, educators are concerned about much more than losing the money. They say early childhood education is an important first step to being successful in school. They also say it is particularly distressing to have so many unfilled seats this year, especially with a vocal champion of early education in the White House.