Gutiérrez asks about non-NYCPS pre-K families and kindergarten slots
Gutiérrez asks what happens to families in non-NYCPS dual-language or immersion programs seeking kindergarten seats. Liss says kindergarten capacity aims to serve both articulating pre-K students and other community children with language needs.
And are there scenarios where families are not enrolled in a NYCPS pre-K program, but
in some kind of kind of dual language or immersion program, and then they may not have a slot in kindergarten just because you're reserving those for the pre-K students?
I just want to clarify, they are not explicitly reserved exactly for the reason you just said.
Every school has a different student population for pre-K versus kindergarten.
There may be families who change schools between pre-K and kindergarten.
There may be families who were in pre-K at a community-based program and are coming in for kindergarten.
But the goal is to have sufficient capacity in kindergarten to be able to support children who are articulating from pre-K to K, as well as children who may be coming from within the community and similarly have a language need.
And I think that the other piece is that
Once a child comes into kindergarten and goes through the formal identification process, if they are an English language learner, the parent comes in for a parent orientation, and they are entitled
to choose between English as a new language, dual language, or transitional bilingual education.
For kindergarten.
Starting kindergarten.
So if the school doesn't offer it, they can request a transfer to a school nearby.
That does offer the program model that they prefer.