MANHATTAN — Hundreds of free pre-K seats are still available across Manhattan for the fall of 2011, including seats in some of the city's most popular schools.
The Department of Education announced the available seats Monday morning to kick off the second round of pre-K admissions. It allows families that did not win a seat during the first round to submit another application, and those who are unsatisfied with their original offer can try again as well.
The Manhattan school that received the most applications in the first round but still has seats available is P.S. 89 in Battery Park City, which got 467 applications for just 32 pre-K seats, according to DOE figures. Because some families that received seats changed their mind, P.S. 89 now has four openings left — one in the morning class and three in the afternoon class, the DOE said.
Other schools that received more than 300 applications but still have a handful of available seats include P.S. 276 in Battery Park City (four morning and nine afternoon seats), the Spruce Street School in lower Manhattan (nine morning and 13 afternoon seats), P.S. 158 on the Upper East Side (one full-day seat), P.S. 84 on the Upper West Side (five full-day seats) and Ella Baker in Midtown East (13 full-day seats).
Families will have an even better chance of getting into schools that still have more than half of their seats available. These schools, which all have at least 30 seats remaining, are mostly in upper Manhattan: Washington Heights Academy has 35 seats (13 in the morning and 22 in the afternoon), P.S. 76 in Harlem has 34 full-day seats, and P.S. 46, also in Harlem, has 32 full-day seats.
Parents have until July 29 to fill out an application in person at one of the borough enrollment offices, or until July 31 to submit the application online. The city will notify families about their placement by late August.
The city distributes all pre-K seats by lottery, based on a complex series of priorities. Younger siblings of current students receive top priority, followed by children who live in the school's zone, district and borough.
Those who did not receive an offer during the first round will be prioritized over those who already got an offer but would prefer a different one, the city said.
Unlike the kindergarten admissions process, in which every child is guaranteed a seat, the city does not give a pre-K seat to every child who applies, since there are not enough seats to go around.
For more information about pre-K admissions, visit the Department of Education's website.
