Mayor Zohran Mamdani plans to announce on Tuesday that New York City will add 1,000 free preschool seats for 3-year-olds this fall to meet demand for the popular program and to address neighborhoods that have not had enough seats.
Mr. Mamdani will announce the news on Staten Island, which will be part of the expansion after the borough was excluded from the first phase of his free child care program for 2-year-olds.
The city will add 3-K seats in 56 ZIP codes where many families submitted applications and where centers have capacity. The neighborhoods reflect a cross section of the city, including wealthier neighborhoods like the Upper West Side in Manhattan and working-class neighborhoods like Jackson Heights in Queens.
The city offers free preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds. But some families have had trouble securing a 3-K seat near their homes after former Mayor Eric Adams sought to scale back the program.
“For too long, families were promised universal 3-K but offered seats miles away — forcing them to pay out of pocket for child care or leave the city,” Mr. Mamdani said in a statement. “By making 3-K truly universal, we’re building a city where every New Yorker can raise a family.”
Mr. Mamdani ran for mayor on an affordability platform that included universal child care. He recently announced the neighborhoods where the city’s expansion to a program for 2-year-olds will begin this fall with 2,000 seats.
The 3-K system has about 39,400 students, and prekindergarten has about 51,700 students, according to the mayor’s office. Mr. Mamdani has sought to increase enrollment by boosting outreach, releasing social media videos and inviting children to news conferences.
Gov. Kathy Hochul committed to providing $100 million in state funding to help stabilize 3-K, and she said the state would pay for the first two years of 2-K. But Mr. Mamdani and Ms. Hochul have not said how the programs would be paid for in future years.
Kayla Santosuosso, a councilwoman from southern Brooklyn who is pregnant with her first child, said she was pleased that neighborhoods in her district like Bath Beach and Gravesend were slated to get more 3-K seats.
“Those neighborhoods have needed more seats,” she said. “There are a lot of immigrant families who might not be aware that the program exists and needed the outreach.”
The neighborhoods in Staten Island that will get new 3-K seats include Port Richmond and Tottenville. Elected officials were upset when Staten Island was excluded from the first 2-K seats, lamenting that they were being treated as the “forgotten borough.”
Mr. Mamdani’s administration said that Staten Island would be part of the 2-K expansion in fall 2027, when the program is expected to add 10,000 seats.
The mayor has not said how many families submitted applications for 3-K and pre-K last month. City officials said that as new 3-K programs are added, families will be notified and can update their applications until April 24.
In some neighborhoods, families have been worried about not getting a seat and continue to pay more than $20,000 per year for preschool. Other neighborhoods have had empty seats, including the Lower East Side of Manhattan and the South Bronx.
Emma G. Fitzsimmons is a public policy correspondent for The Times, covering New York City.
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