An influx of thousands of 5-year-olds from downsizing day-care centers will create chaos for the city’s kindergarten classes this fall — hiking class sizes and forcing hundreds of kids to attend schools far from home, politicians and advocates charged.
The student stampede, which comes at a time when public schools have already wait-listed hundreds of aspiring kindergartners, stems from a bid by the Administration for Children’s Services to cut about $15 million from its 2009 budget.
More than 3,200 kids who would have been served in ACS-run day-care centers are now expected to enroll in public schools this fall — burdening a system that some say is already bursting at the seams.
“There’s going to be outrage in the community,” warned City Council Education Committee Chairman Robert Jackson, speaking at a press conference on the steps of City Hall. “It’s irresponsible and we can’t accept it.”
A preliminary Department of Education analysis on the potential impact of the influx suggests that more than 500 of the former ACS kids would not be able to be served by the school closest to their home.
This includes 41 kids in Manhattan’s District 2 and 34 kids in District 24 in Queens — two of the most overcrowded districts in the city, according to parents.
Those kids will likely have to be bused to schools outside their neighborhoods — a real hardship for kids so young, according to a mom who has been dealing with the issue this year.
“It’s so frustrating,” said Thea McCallion, whose 4-year-old daughter, Paige, has been commuting to a pre-kindergarten by bus this year.
And because her daughter still doesn’t have a seat in a kindergarten near her Upper East Side home confirmed for September, she’s afraid the rough commute will continue.
“I’ve been working on making sure my daughter has a seat in school for five years,” fumed McCallion.
Advocates also slammed the Department of Education for proposing that schools allow kindergarten classes to enroll as many as 25 students — even as the city is committing nearly $300 million in state and federal funds to lower class size next year.
Department of Education spokesman Andrew Jacob said that raising class size was just one of the options proposed to principals.
“Of course, we’re still committed to reducing class size,” he said. “Some schools won’t be affected, and no kindergarten class will have more than 25 students, the contractual maximum.”