Staten Island School of Civic LeadershipRigorous ritual leads to seat in a classroom like this. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Parents across the borough are lying awake nights wondering where their sons or daughters will attend school in September. They've visited plenty of schools in person. They've prepared children for exams that could give them access to the top programs....
Rigorous ritual leads to seat in a classroom like this.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Parents across the borough are lying awake nights wondering where their sons or daughters will attend school in September. They've visited plenty of schools in person. They've prepared children for exams that could give them access to the top programs. They've wondered about private school, and how they might afford it.
The nerve-racking application process isn't for college: They're trying to land a spot in public school kindergarten -- and tomorrow is the deadline for applications.
"Around the time my daughter was 3, I was not able to sleep," said New Brighton parent Danielle Karunadasa. "I could not sleep at night thinking about, 'Where is she going to go to kindergarten when she turns 5?'"
And Ms. Karunadasa isn't alone. Her anxieties are shared by many parents across Staten Island, especially those who would prefer not to send their children to the school for which they are zoned.
All parents of students ready for kindergarten must complete an application -- even if they want to send their child to a zoned school, or if their child is already enrolled in public pre-kindergarten. And while students zoned for a school are given preference in admissions, sometimes there aren't enough seats available for all of them.
Leslie Chow of New Brighton said she has accepted the system for what it is.
"It's a condition and you have to accept the condition because if you don't, your kid's not going to get into school," she said.
Some parents resort to lying about their address, she said.
"It just skews the process completely, so that it's crazy," Ms. Chow said. "Schools don't even check, so in fact in one way they encourage lying."
While zoned students get the first crack at kindergarten seats, the process isn't first-come, first-served, so a parent who applies to the zoned school today has the same chance as someone who applied weeks ago. If there are remaining seats after zoned students are admitted, preference is given to students with siblings in the school, or living in the district, among other factors. Ms. Chow applied to schools outside her zone, she said, but didn't lie about her address.
OTHER EXAMS
Many parents also have their child take the city's "gifted and talented" exam. Ms. Chow's daughter took the test after a small amount of preparation using tests purchased online. Some parents use more intensive, hour-a-day prep programs.
"We practiced, but I figure if she's not truly gifted and talented, I didn't want to force her into that, where she's not going to be successful and not going to be happy," Ms. Chow said.
Like many parents, Ms. Chow worries that some options might not be a good fit for her daughter, and said she wished she were zoned for a better school.
"I'm worried that my kid's not going to be happy in school, that it's going to be dangerous or violent, that she's going to be unmotivated, that she's not going to want to go to school," she said.
But compared to others, "I don't really worry about it too much," she said.
She overcame her own obstacles in life, and teaches at Concord High School, where all the students struggled at their previous school, so she isn't wary of different populations.
"I figure my kid will be successful wherever she goes," Ms. Chow said.
Ms. Karunadasa didn't like her zoned school and didn't want to put her daughter through what amounts to the toddler SAT and the high pressure of a gifted and talented class. Nor did she want to wait for the results. So she opted for private school.
"I did it because I wanted to be done with it," she said.
Her daughter will attend St. John's Lutheran -- a school Ms. Karunadasa said is affordable, diverse and offers a good education. Now she knows where her daughter's desk will be next September -- while her friends are still waiting.
Parents are notified of regular kindergarten assignments between March 19 and March 23, according to the Department of Education, and can formally register from March 26 though April 20.
For those hoping for a seat in the gifted and talented program, the process is more complicated. The exams were administered in January and early February. Parents will be notified of scores in mid-April, and will be told which gifted and talented sites, if any, are available to their children. They will have to apply to those programs by April 20, and will not be offered school placements until the week of May 21. The deadline to accept or decline placement offers is June 4.
"I personally could not deal with the uncertainty of not knowing," Ms. Karunadasa said.