Park Slope’s Kindergarten Conundrum

An unusually large number of parents were caught off guard last week when their children were put on a waiting list for kindergarten at P.S. 107.

These parents—many of whom believed admission to P.S. 107, their zoned school, was a foregone conclusion—are now scrambling to find a kindergarten spot for their children.

The administration of P.S. 107 appears to have been blindsided as well.  According to Pat Mannino, the school’s Parent Coordinator, there were fifteen students on P.S. 107’s waiting list last year.  All of them were ultimately admitted.  This year, there are 48 children on that list, the majority of who reside in P.S. 107’s zone.  The school did not foresee the huge increase in applicants.

For parents with children far from the top of P.S. 107’s waiting list, admission is highly unlikely. According to the Department of Education, children who remain on their zoned kindergarten waiting list by May will be reassigned to another school.  Efforts will be made to keep these alternative placements near children’s’ zoned schools.

“How will they do that?” Mannino wondered.  “All the schools within walking distance of P.S. 107 combined don’t have 40 [available] seats.  I can understand why parents are panicking.  They might be offered a school far away.  A school who-knows where.”

The DOE did not respond to a request for comment.

Parents’ expectations notwithstanding, kindergarten is not mandated by the New York City Department of Education.  Children are entitled only to a spot in their district, not necessarily their designated zone.  But District 15—which includes P.S. 107—is massive, including points from the East River to Prospect Park and from Livingston Street to 56th Street.  Even if schools provide bus transportation, having kindergarten assignments in such distant locales will likely impose a substantial burden on families.

Parents of some on the waiting list have organized and reached out to local lawmakers, including Assemblymember James Brennan who thinks it’s “absurd for the Department of Education not to plan for kindergartners to go to their zoned school.” 

He sent a letter to Chancellor Black saying as much. 

“These parents were not informed when they applied directly to P.S. 107 – as instructed by DOE - that there might be too few seats at P.S. 107 to accommodate all its zoned Kindergartners,” the letter reads.  “They received no suggestion from DOE that it might be wise to apply to other kindergartens in District 15 as a precaution, in order to be sure of a nearby placement.  As a result, they are now finding that many of the nearby schools in the district also have waitlists and it may be too late for them to make any choices of other schools in the district.”

At least one parent far down the waiting list turned down a private school spot in favor of P.S. 107, a school they now have no chance of attending.  Elementary schools also run their waiting lists independently and, according to the DOE, there is no centralized system for prioritizing the admission of one out-of-zone student over another based on whether they are on a waiting list at their zoned school.  

Other schools in the neighborhood may be facing similarly long kindergarten waiting lists, but not P.S. 321.  According to P.S. 321’s principal Liz Phillips, the school—one of the neighborhood’s largest at 1371 students—expects to have a kindergarten seat for all zoned children. Phillips says that the school did not see a meaningful uptick in kindergarten applicants this year.  But in years where there has been such an increase, the school has been able to accommodate them by adding kindergarten classes.

With space an issue at P.S. 107, adding classes may not be an option.  Creative alternatives like expanding into nearby locations such as the Armory across the street are theoretically possible, but may not be put into motion fast enough to be a solution for this fall.

“We need more schools in Park Slope,” concluded Mannino.

Parents are left then to hope that the DOE will come up with an equitable, coordinated solution, as they look forward to next year when their children might have a chance at a first-grade spot at P.S. 107. 

That is, at least in theory – P.S. 107’s first grade is bigger than its kindergarten, but only by seven students.