High Schools make "over offers"

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If you are looking at the “numbers” on MY SCHOOLS and the totals don’t add up, it is because the City knows generally how many people decide to take other offers. More students are placed at a school than official seats available. When the inevitable happens and kids choose to go to Specialized HS or charter or private there are not big empty gaps. This is why the wait lists may not more a lot (or at all) at many popular schools.

Here is a sample from the Directory:

Millennium has 117 general ed seats and 33 SWD seats. Total 150 seats in the Freshmen class. They made offers to 190 students last year. Even though that is more than seats available, no one will be turned away. It is very likely that a bunch of those students will decide to go elsewhere. If Millennium is very popular this year, then its classrooms will be more full than normal, and people won’t move off the waitlist.

These numbers are particularly helpful when looking at 6-12th grade programs, because they will tell you how many people, who were not returning 8th graders, were offered seats.

Prek placements and wait lists 2020

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Prek placements and wait lists 2020

By Joyce Szuflita
Prek placements are out. Check your account in MY SCHOOLS for results.

Placements:Many people are happy. Congratulations to them.
Of course, I am hearing from families who have gotten placements way down at the bottom of their lists or schools that they haven’t ranked at all. The City will make every effort to place you in a school from your list, but they don’t guarantee you something from that list. Families are often surprised that they got a low placement. That application is a list of your preferences, that is all (very important but not strategic). You are likely to preference very popular programs that can’t possibly take all the students who apply, and small programs that don’t have enough seats for all the families who may have a high priority.

Your ranking of the school doesn't advantage or disadvantage you for a placement. Families often think that their ranking of the schools equates to leverage and it doesn't. Watch this vimeo to get an idea about the algorithm.

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essential prek information

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essential prek information

By Joyce Szuflita
Here is what you need to know about placement:
You will be ranking up to 12 choices on your MY SCHOOLS application through March 16, 2020. 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.

  • The biggest misunderstanding about prek is that you will be attending at your zoned school. There are about 75,000 kids on a grade in NYC. There are around 30,000 prek seats in public schools. Those seats, depending on the neighborhood, will go first to siblings of zoned students and then occasionally to some zoned students. The other 40,000 seats will be in a variety of places; NYCEEC’s, Prek Centers, a few Un-zoned schools and a few Charter Schools.

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how does kindergarten placement work?

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how does kindergarten placement work?

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.

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tale of two wait lists 2017

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tale of two wait lists 2017

By Joyce Szuflita
This is what happens at kindergarten placement time:

Expect to be placed in your zoned school (even if you have not ranked it on your application). That is generally what happens every year. A few people who wanted a school other than their zoned school will be lucky and the DoE's mission is to place you in the school that you have ranked high on your application, but the match also takes into consideration, your geographic and sibling priorities and that is the reason that you may not have gotten your heart's desire if it is out of zone.

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tale of two waitlists: there are too many people at your beloved zoned school

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tale of two waitlists: there are too many people at your beloved zoned school

By Joyce Szuflita
If you wanted your zoned school and there were too many other zoned families for the school to take everyone, and you received a placement at a school other than a school on your app or your zoned school, you may be on the Capped Zoned School wait list. It is a totally different animal from the wait lists that I described previously. Here is how it works.

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kindergarten placement 2016

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kindergarten placement 2016

By Joyce Szuflta
It looks like kindergarten placements may come in next week. Good luck to all.
Expect to be placed in your zoned school (even if you have not ranked it on your application). That is generally what happens every year. A few people who wanted a school other than their zoned school will be lucky and the DoE's mission is to place you in the school that you have ranked high on your application, but the match also takes into consideration, your geographic and sibling priorities and that is the reason that you may not have gotten your heart's desire if it is out of zone.

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PS 8's overcrowding

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By Joyce Szuflita
It is not new news that PS 8 is very very crowded and their kindergarten class may be "capped" in fall of 2015. That means that there may not be enough seats available for all in zone families at K. I have found, in other neighborhoods where this has been a problem (look to Park Slope and Kensington for Brooklyn prototypes), that the families who have the best outcomes are the ones who stop shaking their fists in frustration and try to affect change and/or avail themselves of the system which may also provide them with a wide range of school options. The DoE will do what the DoE will do, but they are not against listening and numbers will always get attention. You will feel frustrated through this process and rezoning (which will happen with a new plan or building) is always painful for someone.

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disappointed!

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By Joyce Szuflita
Seems like the Kindergarten Connect notification is coming out today. This is what I expect to hear a lot of -

"I put down 15 choices! My zoned school was my last choice! I got my zoned school! "Choice" is not choice! Everybody and everything s#@*ks!"

This is exactly what I anticipated. Give yourself a moment to be disappointed, but then move on. Your hopes seemed to be dashed in an instant. What you need to understand is that this is how this system works for most people and you need to be patient for it to work for you. This is the starting pistol in a marathon. It is too early to freak. This is the baseline.

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kindergarten 2012 waitlists: remain calm

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By Joyce Szuflita
Here is what you need to know about the DOE: they make decisions based on citywide issues. The decisions may seem politically loaded depending on the local lens through which they are viewed - they have to do with the minutiae of bureaucracy and not evil intent. If there was an evil master plan, everything would probably work more smoothly - I AM JOKING.

Here is what is going on with the wait-lists at local zoned schools:
First off, I have not seen or heard from a single family who has received a rejection letter. If you have one, I would love to see it. There is a WORLD of difference between a rejection and a wait-list. Everyone needs to take a breath.

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107 wait-list

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By Joyce Szuflita
Parents of prospective PS 107 kindergarteners in the south slope have been waiting on pins and needles to find out if their children will have a seat in the school in fall of 2011. There has been a wait-list of over 40 families who have actively been lobbying for relief and assistance in finding appropriate seats for their kindergarteners. Parents feel that they were blindsided and weren't able to prepare for this last minute wait-listing. If they had some warning, they could have gotten on the wait-lists at nearby programs (which are currently closed), applied for lottery or independent programs and lobbied for changes that could helped the population at the school. They are not the only ones, according to different reports, PS 39 and 196 among others are over capacity with in-zone families. In the past the children from PS 196 have been the only District 15 population that the DOE has had to place in other schools. Last year they were sent to PS 172, PS 124, PS 32 and PS 94.

One of the points that the community has been making is that the school had petitioned to remove the one prek class in the building to accommodate the k overflow with a new kindergarten classroom. The request was denied, but it appears now that it may be moved to a separate location. There was movement a couple days ago when 25 children came off the list. Reports are unclear about whether the school consolidated an upper grade class to open up a new classroom or whether the prek will be moved. So far there has not been much movement from parents enrolling their children in private school. There may be some relief when the gifted and talented placements as well as lottery schools (BNS, the Children's School and the Charter schools) are made.

Because of capacity laws (only 110 children can occupy the cafeteria at a time) the kindergarten classes will eat lunch in their classrooms. Lunch shifts run from 10:30 to 1:10. Unfortunately, this is not unusual.