It's the expansion of an existing plan to strengthen and stabilize the City's early childhood education system, focusing on community-based child care providers.
"We made a promise to New Yorkers: we would fix the 3-K system and build a city where every family can count on affordable, high-quality child care. Today, we're delivering on that promise," said Mayor Mamdani. "Over the past few months, we have opened nine previously vacant child care centers, added thousands of 3-K seats where families need them most and started rebuilding trust with working families across this city. And we're just getting started."
Families will be able to express interest in their preferred sites via a waitlist process.
Roughly 700 seats added after the application update period closed on April 24 will be filled through the waitlist process. Families can continue adding themselves to waitlists for all programs, and seats will be offered based on availability.
While all families who applied to 3-K can expect to receive an offer on May 19, the waitlist process will allow families to express interest in newly available sites and potentially receive an offer at a preferred program closer to home.
Mayor Mamdani also announced the opening of a new early childhood education center in Brooklyn's Columbia Waterfront neighborhood. That center will host 63 new 3-K and Pre-K seats.
A child care center at 129 Van Brunt St. will contribute 45 3-K seats to the administration's total 2,000 newly added seats.
"We are excited to continue strengthening and expanding 3-K so that more children across all five boroughs can benefit from the joyful, engaging learning experiences these programs provide," said New York City Public Schools Chancellor Kamar H. Samuels. "By adding seats and opening new centers, we are building on our commitment to making early childhood education more accessible for New York City families and giving our youngest learners a strong start from day one."
Mayor Mamdani said that the primary model for 2-K programming will be full-day and full-year.
This fall, New York City will launch the first 2,000 free 2-K seats in the City's history.
Applications for 2-K enrollment open June 2.
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