[Editor’s Note: Interested in learning more about nursery school admissions? Please note that New York Family’s Independent School Fairs, featuring Nursery Schools and Ongoing Schools (K & Up), are coming up at the end of September and in early October. The School Fairs are free, and children of all ages, including babies and toddlers, are welcome. For more information, REGISTER HERE.]
We often hear from new and expectant parents asking apprehensively about whether nursery school admissions in the city is as challenging as they’ve heard. From my experience with interviewing school directors and city parents for years, I’d say this: the process is almost certainly more involving than anything your parents had to deal with if they sent you to nursery school a few decades ago. In this city, in 2015, applying to private nursery schools is not just a matter of filling out an application at a local school. On the other hand, if you do your homework, and learn about the admissions process, and follow the best practices for applying, then the odds highly favorable that your child will end up with a spot at a nursery school that you and your family will be happy about. Here’s our overview of the process; and please note applying for a spot in the city’s free Universal Pre-K is another process, which you can learn all about here. )
The second question interested parents invariably ask about the process about when parents they need to start paying attention and doing their research for real. That’s where “Black Tuesday” comes in. I really shouldn’t call it Black Tuesday; I’m being unnecessarily cheeky, for the impulse behind it is good; it is meant to make the process more manageable for parents and schools alike.
Here’s the scoop: If you think you’re going to be interested in applying to private nursery schools in NYC, then you need to know that many of them now begin with programs for 2-year-olds, or “in the 2s,’ as they say. That’s important because it means that the biggest point of entry for schools with 2s programs is usually just that–at age 2, because many of the spots in the 3s will be taken up by children who got in at the 2s.
Now work the calendar backwards.
At many local nursery schools, parents have to apply for admission to nursery school a year before the September in which your child would start. So if you’re interested in entering your child in a 2s program, then you have to apply during the fall of the previous year, when they are 1; likewise, if you’re interested in a 3s program, you’d apply when your child is 2. [For the city’s Universal Pre-K program, which follows the school calendar and begins in September, you apply in the year when you’re child is 3, for the following year, when you’re child is 4.)
Now here comes Black Tuesday.
Not all nursery schools but a lot of them start to give out admissions applications on the Tuesday after Labor Day-or this year on Tuesday, September 8. And not not do the start that day, but many of the most popular programs run out of applications before the end of the day, often by midday.
Miss that day and, to be fair to the others who didn’t miss it, a school won’t give you an application if they’ve already given out their pre-determined amont.
Bottom Line: if you think you’re interested in applying for a spot in private nursery school in the city starting a year from now, for September 2016, then it would behoove you to be ready to request applications on the Tuesday after Labor Day. Plan to stay home for the day, ready with a list of schools you hope to get applications from. Make sure you’ve visited their websites beforehand (not on that morning), and know whether they expect a call or email from you on Tuesday and the information you should have at the ready–like your child’s date of birth.
If you haven’t already, start doing your homework about the process now, and make sure to register now for New York Family’s wonderful (and free) Independent School Fairs (nursery and K-and-up) at the end of September.
For more details and to register, CLICK HERE.
Not all schools subscribe to that Tuesday start date to obtain applications, so there’s plenty of hope of you miss it. But better you know about it and are ready, than have regrets later.
In addition to our article about the nursery admissions process and our Independent School Fairs, great resources for learning more about nursery school admissions are the Parents League and Victoria Goldman’s Manhattan Directory of Private Nursery Schools.
Good luck.
