Thousands of families are on the waiting list for New York City’s free 3K program, many of them frustrated by the uncertainty of their children’s educational futures.
The city’s education department confirmed that while 94 percent of 43,000 applicants for 3-K had been accepted, about 2,400 families remained undecided about where to enroll last week.
“We didn’t get in anywhere … so there’s a good chance we won’t get a spot this year,” Ken Anderson, one of the city’s parents, told The Post on Thursday.
Anderson noted that most of the information she received about the application process came from other parents, not from the Department of Education.
“They advertise there are thousands of vacancies and that every child will be given a place, but if that’s true, where are the places? And if there are, how far do they have to go?” he asked.
Mayor Eric Adams has vowed to offer a spot to every child who wants to attend the 3-K program, and city officials are scrambling to assure parents that there are still 9,000 spots available, but their location remains a mystery.
This means that some students who are not accepted into their first choice school and end up on the waiting list may have to commute for long periods of time if they are accepted into their second choice school.
And with the June 14 deadline for accepting 3-K offers fast approaching, many families are wondering what to do about the unrealistic offers they’ve received.
The Roosevelt Island resident said he shortlisted 12 schools during the application process, but his child was enrolled in a program that was a 50-minute commute from his home that denied him and his wife the opportunity to tour the school.
“We felt like we had a good chance of getting some good 3K programs, but the reality is that’s not the case and we feel like we’ve been deceived into thinking we’re not the only ones,” said a parent who asked not to be named.
“Without the 3-K option, I have no idea what to do with my kids.”
“Adams is a disaster and a disappointment to parents,” the parents were furious.
City Councilwoman Julie Wong (D-Brooklyn) said she has heard from hundreds of parents in her district who have expressed frustration and anger over the lack of clarity.
“[They’re] “People ask me, ‘Why are there so many kids from other areas in this school in my district?’ and I always have to explain that 3-K is not zoned,” she said.
Wong said parents from any of New York City’s five boroughs can apply to the school and are not necessarily guaranteed admission to a school in their own district.
She also noted that ward maps can be misleading and place some families in districts that may seem close but where the commute is expensive and often impossible.
“Someone who doesn’t live in my district might look at Sunnyside or Maspeth and think, ‘Oh, well, that’s close enough,’ but there’s no public transportation between those two districts that actually gets you there,” she said.
“So to get the 3K you have to get on a bus and then change to another bus, which is unfortunate if you don’t have a car.”
Education Department spokesman Nathaniel Steyer said more than 200 parents who were initially turned down have now been offered places, but could not provide details on where those options were, saying “information about the allocation of places is not available at this time.”
This comes after city officials failed to provide a timeline for an expensive report from consulting firm Accenture to help with the “needs and seating plan” for the 3-K program.
During a recent education hearing with the City Council, officials struggled to give a timeline for the release of the report and walked back a figure of “$350,000 or $250,000” that was significantly lower than the $760,000 they initially claimed they paid for the report.
Additional reporting by Haley Brown
