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We are moving to either Riverdale or Westchester County this summer. We have a three year old and another child on the way. We're basing a big part of our home search on school districts, but still have some questions about how pre-k works. Particularly in Westchester County, a lot, if not all, of the Pre-K programs, seem to be half-day (2-3 hours). We've always done full time (at least 9AM-3PM) childcare for our little one since we both work, but would be anxious to take advantage of the free pre-k. Are there options for parents to extend the day somehow in the public pre-k prgorams? I'm also concerned about the 'lottery' system that seems to be in place in a lot of districts. What are the chances of even getting a spot for our children? Are 4 year olds guaranteed a full day spot in the NYC public schools? We definitely plan on visiting the schools and finding out more when we visit the area later this month, but for now it wold be great to have some local parents' perspective. Thank you!
First, most Westchester towns don't have public pre-k. Ossining (my district), Pocantico and Tarrytown all do. I'm sure a couple districts in Southern Westchester do, but I'm not familiar with them. Yes, they are generally half day. Even the private nursery schools in my area that offer pre-k/4 year old programs mostly do half day. Any full day programs are generally in facilities that also offer childcare/ daycare so that's how you get a full day. Also, in our district the buses will pickup/drop kids at the local daycares so you should see if that is an option in the districts you look at.
Our district technically has a lottery. However, there are enough available spots that right now they don't have to actually use the lottery system. Maybe someday they will...
in the Mamaroneck school district (which includes most of Mamaroneck and all of Larchmont), they have public pre-k. It's only part time and also by lottery. I think there is the option to use one of the local daycare providers for before and after care, but I'll be honest, it isn't really spelled out anywhere. I haven't been able to get completely straight answers yet, even though I live here and have a child eligible for pre-k in 2015-2016. The situation seems to change from year to year (they used to have the pre-k at one of the local elementary schools, then it changed, not sure where it will be next year...).
If Westchester is on your list of options, I would just assume in your budget that you'll still be paying for full time daycare in one way or another the year before kindergarten.
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