Schools before kindegarten

tom.neill

I may be rellocating to the US with work. I have 2 children of 4 and 2 who currently do 3 and 2 days a week of playschool in the UK. Can anyone help me with what the US equivalent of this would be - are they fee-paying or not? What sort of costs could one expect in the Brooklyn area?
Anything like this would be great!

hillaryj

These are called pre-schools. Here is one reference you can use to begin searching for one in this area.
http://parkslopeparents.com/index.php?option=com_sobi2&catid=283&Itemid=212

At our preschool the current fee for 4 full days is $1500/month.

Good luck,
H

stacey

Your 4 year old should be eligible for free pre-kindergarten classes at teh public schools. Some schools have all day pre-k while some have half day pre-k. You will have to pay for any type of school/care for the 2 year old. There are quite a few waiting lists for the places available to your 2 year old so I suggest starting to research now.

Here is the site for the NYC Board of Education

http://schools.nyc.gov/ChoicesEnrollment/NewStudents/default.htm

newtoph

Hello

My husband and I moved to Prospect Heights last summer and we were in a very similar situation. At the time our daughter was 3.5 and our youngest boy was 1 years old. We toured schools in Prospect Heights and we found a really charming preschool called Prospect Kids Academy. Our daughter attended PKA this past year and will be moving on to kindergarten in September. Our son who will be 2 years old in August will start full time come September. 5 days 9-3pm for $1,175.00 per month is very reasonable compared to other options in the neighborhood.

I just thought I would mention this because it was very similar to our situation last year.

Here is their website http://www.prospectkidsacademy.com/

Good luck with your search!

Alison

doctorj

stacey wrote:
Here is the site for the NYC Board of Education

http://schools.nyc.gov/ChoicesEnrollment/NewStudents/default.htm

Can someone explain this to me:

...if you wish to have your child attend a New York City public school kindergarten, he or she must turn five years old by December 31 of the year he or she will enroll.

Let's say a child is born December 20, 2005, thus turns five near the end of 2010. Do you do the paperwork sometime in 2010 to go to kindergarten in 2011, or sometime in 2009 to go to kindergarten in 2010? I'm assuming that the school year and calendar year coincide.

stacey

This:

doctorj wrote: 2009 to go to kindergarten in 2010

Technically you would start the search/enrollment process at some point between January and March, 2010 for the child to start classes September 2010.

That same child is eligible for Pre-k at the public schools for the 2009/10 semester (must turn 4 years old before December 31, 2009).

homeowner

You do it in the year you want your child to start - in other words, you can fill out paperwork in January/February when your kid is four, for your child to start school in September if they turn five in December.