how does kindergarten placement work?
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By Joyce Szuflita
This is what is going to happen:
You are now ranking up to 12 choices on your MY SCHOOLS application. Don’t wait until the last min., the website often gets glitchy. Take screen shots of any trouble you have and of your final list, just in case you have difficulty. You can always fix it at the Family Welcome Center if you tell them of your troubles in a timely way
You don’t need to rank 12, but why not add a few thoughtful choices as insurance.
You don’t have to rank your zoned school, but you will still likely get placed there, because it is the school for which you have the highest priority.
You are not “guaranteed” a placement in your zoned school, although it is VERY likely.
You are absolutely NOT guaranteed a placement from your list of 12, if you don’t list your zoned school. The list is your only chance to express your full preference to the DoE.
No one sees the ranking. The schools NEVER know how you have ranked them.
The way you rank schools doesn’t affect your priority for a school. It is your ONLY means of expressing your desires. Don’t waste it.
There is no consideration about possible G&T choices or placement on the regular Jan. application. That comes later.
After the initial placement is made in March, you will automatically be placed on a wait list at every school that you have ranked higher than the school you were placed in. You don’t need to do anything to activate your wait list choices.
The way you rank your application doesn’t affect your placement on the wait list. You will be placed randomly within your your geographic priority.
In my region, I am passionate in my belief that there is no secret ‘nodge, nodge, wink, wink’ whisper aspect to getting off the wait list. Stop spreading these ugly and stupid rumors about worthy professionals, AND if you have proof, I will happily help you walk it to Central Enrollment AND the NY Times. Not kidding. What may work? Wait. Stay in touch. Follow through until after school begins. That is the way you may possibly get in.
If you are driving yourself crazy in the spring and want to keep in contact with the school (NOT the principal) - usually the school Secretary or the Parent Coordinator - in the way that they prefer. Your message will be, “We are active on the wait list and we will take the seat if offered.”
The reality is that there is very little movement in the spring, when everyone wants a different seat. By late summer and early fall there may be a few seats available, but because human nature never changes, the crowd has gone away (either because they have found an acceptable option or they have grossed out and gone away) and the few people who have iron stomachs are the last remaining candidates, and may occasionally have good luck.
The wait lists may move between March and late Oct (after school has begun). Seats may open as placements are made at charter schools and G&T programs. As kids leave zoned schools for these programs, many seats all over the place may be in play. No zoned school is required to take out-of-zone kids and if they generally come close to filling with their zoned students, they won’t take other students. But if they are under capacity, they are likely taking a hit to their budgets and they have an incentive to take out-of-zone or out-of-district kids.
