How can you know your child’s chances of getting an offer from one of your favorite schools? It helps to start by learning how offers are made. Students get kindergarten offers based on four key factors:

1. Your application choices

The number of choices that you add to your child’s application AND the order in which you place them matter! Add up to 12 choices to your child’s application in your true order of preference. Then submit the application.

You can list up to 12 choices on the application. Be sure to list the programs in true preference order, even if the programs are located at the same school. For example, if you wish to attend the G&T program at a school more than the other kindergarten program, list it higher on the application. A child's admissions priority does not change no matter which order you place choices on the application. We aim to offer you the highest possible choice on your application.

2. Seat availability

• Each kindergarten program has a certain number of available seats. 
• Schools vary in size and demand. When a school has more applicants than seats, we can’t make offers to everyone who wants to attend it—in this case, offers are made first to the students who have the highest admissions priority to attend the school.

3. Your priority group for a program

• Kindergarten programs give admissions priorities to specific groups of applicants before others, such as to students who live in a specific zone, who have siblings at the school, who live in the district, or who currently attend pre-K at the school. 
• Your child has a better chance of getting an offer from some schools than others. A school’s admissions priorities determine the order in which groups of applicants are considered for offers.
• All students in a program’s priority group 1 will be considered first for offers. Then, if seats are still available, students in that program’s priority group 2 will be considered next, and so on. You can find this information on the school card in MySchools. Under any schools program in MySchools, you can see their admissions priorities and which priority groups received offers last year. They will be in different priority groups for different programs.

4. Randomly assigned numbers

Each kindergarten applicant is also assigned a random number. If there are more applicants than available seats within a priority group, these random numbers determine the order in which students get offers. 

TIP: Use MySchools(Open external link) to learn about a school’s admissions priorities and who got offers last year. This information will help you know your child’s chances of getting an offer to a particular school. The higher priority your child has to attend a school, the higher the chance that your child will get an offer to that school. You can find this information under program card in MySchools.nyc The section called " My Chances" will list the program's admissions priorities and if that priority group received offers the previous year.

If a school made offers to a specific group of students in 2023, they may be able to make offers to this group again. For example, if a school was able to make offers to applicants from the fourth priority group, they may be able to make offers to this group again this year.

There are several types of admissions priorities:

Zone Priority - Most NYC families have a zoned school, which is a school that gives priority to children in the geographic area ("zone").

Sibling Priority

Elementary schools prioritize applicants whose siblings attend the same school. If your child has an older sibling at a school that you’ve added to their application, your child may have a higher chance of getting an offer from that school than an applicant without an enrolled sibling. To make sure your child gets sibling priority, be sure to provide sibling information when you apply.

A sibling is defined as an applicant’s brother or sister, including half-brothers, half-sisters, step-brothers, step-sisters, foster brothers, and foster sisters who live in the same household and are currently pre-registered or enrolled at that school and who will be enrolled at that school in any grade level in September 2024. This includes students enrolled in District 75 programs in the same school building.

Pre-K Priority

If your child is currently enrolled in pre-K at a DOE public elementary school, they will have an admissions priority to attend kindergarten at that school. Not all elementary schools have pre-K.

Reminder: Students currently attending pre-K at a public elementary school still need to apply to kindergarten.

District Priority

Most schools give an admissions priority to students in their own district over students who live in other districts.

Admissions Priorities for Zoned Schools

Tip: Use MySchools (Open external link) to see which zoned schools admitted non-zoned students last year. These schools might be a good choice for your family if you want to explore options outside of your zone that you can easily commute to. 

Admissions Priorities for Non-Zoned Schools

Different non-zoned schools have different admissions priorities, but most non-zoned schools give an admissions priority to students who live in the same district as the school. When the application is open, you can look up any school’s admissions priorities in MySchools(Open external link), find out which priority group your child is in for that school, and learn which groups of applicants received offers from that school last year.

Non-Zoned District-Specific Admissions Priorities

Some districts—such as Districts 1, 7, and 23 have district-specific admissions priorities.

Diversity in Admissions Priorities

Some elementary schools across the city participate in an initiative to increase diversity in their programs by giving admissions priorities to students who qualify for free and reduced lunch (FRL), students in temporary housing, English Language Learners, and other groups. Learn more about diversity in admissions (DIA) and the current list of schools participating in diversity initiatives.