Navigating the NYC 3-K Process: Applications Opens Today (Jan 15) - Closes Feb 28

Hey folks. I'm a fellow toddler parent and I've had to learn this process all on my own. Hope this helps people as I've had a lot of parents ask me questions about this.

Steps

  1. Review the NYC Department of Education (a.k.a NYCDOE or NYC Public Schools) 3-K enrollment website: https://www.schools.nyc.gov/enrollment/enroll-grade-by-grade/3k
  2. Familiarize yourself with the public school calendar for 2025-26 (https://www.schools.nyc.gov/calendar/2025-2026-school-year-calendar). I did the math, and even when I take into account my employer's 11 or so holidays I get, there are 90+ days (summer, recess periods, school holidays, etc.) where you need to find childcare help because school releases students. This could factor into which programs you want to apply for.
  3. Open an account for your kid on the NYCDOE MySchools application: https://www.myschools.nyc/en/. The application also houses the school directory app where you look for programs. I have found the map to be cumbersome to use.
  4. I recommend starting a Google sheet of your own to start taking inventory of which programs you are interested and the types of features that are important to you.
  5. Call programs to see if they have open-houses or private tours. Get the information you need that is missing from the MySchools website (cost of after-school, cost of early drop-off, do they have summer programming, any offerings for days DOE releases students, etc.).
  6. Submit your application.

Things to keep in mind

  • 3-K normally covers care from 8 am to 2:30 pm (or something really close to that range). For working parents, this means you need to reach out to the program to see if the school has after-school programs that cover the remaining hours (2:30 pm to 5 pm).
  • Your odds of getting into a 3-K program are not correlated with when you submit your application. So don't rush yourself.
  • Your odds of getting into a 3-K program are impacted by if the already have offerings for 1 and 2 year-olds. The 1 and 2 year olds already in the school get 'priority status' for 3-K seats.
  • Not all school districts guarantee a seat for every child. But the city guarantees you a NYC seat, so that means you might have to enroll your child in another school district. Keep that in mind when you look for schools. Unfortunately NYCDOE removed this information from their website.
  • Rank in true preference order. You can’t game the system.
  • You won’t hear back about your application until May 2025. Once you do, you usually have 1-2 weeks to decide if you want the seat offered.