The city began accepting applications for 4,268 new full-day pre-kindergarten seats this fall at 140 public schools across the five boroughs, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced yesterday. That's a 26 percent increase over the current school year. Many of the new seats are in high demand districts. The announcement comes shortly after the state agreed to provide funding for the new seats. De Blasio's goal is to expand to 73,250 pre-K seats by 2015. Officials expect 40 percent of the new pre-K slots to be located in public schools, with the rest run by community-based organizations.
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