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Kindergarten Selection Has Lower East Side Parents Doing Homework

By Patrick Hedlund | February 16, 2011 2:42pm
Officials from five District 1 elementary schools spoke about their kindergarten classes at the Educational Alliance.
Officials from five District 1 elementary schools spoke about their kindergarten classes at the Educational Alliance.
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DNAinfo/Patrick Hedlund

By Patrick Hedlund

DNAinfo News Editor

LOWER EAST SIDE — Parents with children still learning to speak and scribble got a head-start in the school application process Wednesday at an information session held to discuss downtown kindergarten selection.

Manhattan's District 1, covering the East Village, Lower East Side and Chinatown, is the only "all choice" school district in the city, meaning parents rank schools in the order that they want to send their children to, rather than being zoned to certain schools depending on where they live. Kindergarten applications are due March 4.

Representatives from five of the two-dozen or so elementary schools in District 1 attended the session hosted by the Educational Alliance to discuss their schools' individual programming, including everything from yoga and dance to bilingual education starting before the first grade.

Parents attended a session regarding kindergarten enrollment at the Educational Alliance.
Parents attended a session regarding kindergarten enrollment at the Educational Alliance.
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DNAinfo/Patrick Hedlund

For parents of toddlers still years away from entering kindergarten, the event provided an opportunity to learn about navigating the often-dizzying process of finding their child the right school.

"The information is so overwhelming," said Michele Egan, 38, who has a 2 ½-year-old son and lives in the Seward Park Co-op. "There's just this frenzy of getting your child into a good kindergarten. It makes you very anxious."

Indeed, as schools officials explained, students are prioritized into six categories during the selection process, with district students already enrolled in pre-kindergarten programs, or those with siblings at a particular school, receiving first preference at those locations.

"I'm just trying to learn what's out there and get an underlying education of how to go about choosing schools," said Dayna D'Eletto, 36, who also has a 2 ½-year-old son and lives in the Seward Park Co-Op.

She said that a specialized music program offered by the Girls Prep Charter School piqued her interest, but that some of the other programs seemed to fall short.

For instance, a dual-language program in both Mandarin and English featured at PS 20 on Essex Street seemed intriguing, D'Elleto said, but she had hoped to find similar programs in other languages.

"If you're interested in that but want to have that dual education, you can't have it in this district," she noted, adding that parents would likely have to look to private schools for those programs.

However, PS 20's bilingual course — in which kindergarten students alternate school days learning solely in Mandarin or English — got the attention of one Lower East Side parent who didn't realize the program was available so close to his home.

"Our initial thinking was that we'd put our son in private school, but I want to give this a chance," said John L., who has a 20-month-old and didn't want to give his last name.

As someone who speaks to his son in Chinese, he said bilingual instruction was a "key criteria" for his child, adding that that he had only ever heard of one other school in the district, Shuang Wen/PS 184 on Cherry Street, featuring a dual-language curriculum.

"It's something that's very important to us," he said.

Parents of students with learning disabilities need to do even deeper research to find out which schools best fit their children's needs.

"It's kind of stressful, because I want to put him in the right schools and right programs," said Eileen Collazo, 36, of the East Village, whose 4-year-old son has a learning disability.

She has received recommendations for schools that could accommodate his needs, but was disappointed after taking a recent tour of one school and finding the staff "very blah," she said.

"When I went on the tour, I was not thrilled," she said. "My child is very animated, and he needs to be around people to fulfill that need."

Nonetheless, officials from the five schools in attendance outlined the wide array of unique programs available — from science courses held in a community garden at the Lower East Side's PS 134, to a "peace" program in conflict resolution at the East Village's PS 64.

But even with the deadline for kindergarten applications looming, officials cautioned parents not to jump at a specific school unless they've done their homework by visiting the locations and asking plenty of questions.

Lisa Donlan, president of the District 1 Community Education Council, reminded parents that they could always get on a wait list for their preferred schools.

"Don't feel pressured," she said, "if it's not a good fit."