3-K Expansion to Provide 16,500 New 3-K Seats, Individual Families Can Apply

By Yehudit Garmaise

    Thanks to the $1.8 trillion federal stimulus, the New York City Department of Education (DOE) has opened up 16,500 new seats for 3-K programs, a DOE official said today. 

   By submitting applications online by May 28, New York City families can apply for their 3-year-olds to attend 3K in any school district.

   “Just as there is a seat for every 4-year-old in New York City to attend Pre-K, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s announced yesterday that the city is significantly expanding 3-K programs in the Fall and taking a big step toward providing seats for every 3-year-old as well,” a DOE official told BoroPark24.

    No additional ZIP codes were added to the 74 original ZIP codes that the Mayor’s Task Force on Racial Inclusion and Equity chose to prioritize for eligibility, however, yesterday morning, yeshiva principals, along with many other early childhood providers in the city, were thrilled to receive an e-mail that told them that if they had been awarded previous DOE contracts in August 2020, then those schools “are going to have a chance to add 3-K to their contracts,” a DOE official told BoroPark24 today.

   School administrators who received yesterday’s email and would like to add 3-K seats to their programs can expect to hear from the DOE in the next week or so, said a DOE official, who added that even principals who do not get follow-up calls from the DOE may still have the opportunity to request those seats.

   “Now there are going to be 3-K programs offered all across the city,” a DOE official explained. “Yeshiva programs are among the city’s many schools that are going to get new seats to offer 3-K for the first time.” 

    Not only is the availability of 16,500 additional 3-K seats great news for children and parents, but principals should be happy, as well, to hear that they do not have to submit any of the usual complicated paperwork to receive DOE funding.

    “Any school was awarded a DOE contract in August 2020 is eligible for some of the 16,500 seats through their existing awards,” a DOE official said.

   Principals don’t have to apply to anything new, and applicants have no eligibility requirements: the children just need to be 3-years-old and live in New York City.

   A Boro Park menahel, who is so grateful that his school has the opportunity to potentially provide 3-K, said that he sees every day that early childhood education makes “a huge difference,” in the maturity, knowledge, and development of elementary students.

   “You cannot compare the skill levels and capabilities of students in first grade who school before kindergarten to those who did not.”

photo credit: Tomash Devenishek/Flickr (Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Gene