Dept. of Education ends controversial plan to centralize kindergarten admissions

[Jahness]

Dept. of Education ends controversial plan to centralize kindergarten admissions

By ELIZABETH LAZAROWITZ
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Friday, November 14th 2008

In the wake of heavy criticism, the Dept. of Education has reversed course on a centralized admissions process for kindergarten registration. Watts/News

In the wake of heavy criticism, the Dept. of Education has reversed course on a centralized admissions process for kindergarten registration.

The city has scrapped a controversial plan to centralize kindergarten admissions, Department of Education officials confirmed Friday.

Parents will be allowed to sign kindergarteners up at local schools for the 2009-10 school year instead of sending applications to one central office.

The reversal follows this year's bungled effort to centralize pre-kindergarden applications.

"This experiment was total pandemonium, and something had to be done," said Brooklyn Councilman David Yassky.

Yassky said one mom in his district saw one of her twins get into a pre-kindergarten program while the other was denied.

"I'm so excited," said Celeste Peterka, 43, whose daughter Ysabel will head to kindergarten next fall.

"We would have had to go through this all over again."

This spring, Peterka was caught off guard when her 4-year-old daughter was initially rejected from a pre-K program at Public School 10 in Park Slope, Brooklyn, a school that her brother Lucas, 7, was already attending. Ysabel only got in after the principal made extra room. In the past, having a sibling at a school meant a child was practically a shoe-in for acceptance.

"Just throwing names into a computer in Pennsylvania doesn't work for kids," Peterka said. "It's the educators in the communities that need to be making the decisions."

There will be some changes to the application process, with schools now required to accept applications according to a uniform timetable.

Schools will take admissions in a specific order, with kids in each school's zone getting first preference. Children with a sibling at the school will be next in line, with preference given to kids who live out of the school zone, but within the school's district.

Future kindergartners will also have to apply to the school of their choice early next year, even if they're already attending pre-K there.

Dept. of Education ends controversial plan to centralize kindergarten admissions