Pre-K - Didn’t get current student priority
My child has attended a private preschool that we love as a two-year-old, and then received priority for their 3-K program since he was a current student. That’s where he is now. We received his Pre-K offer last week, after filling out the application on time, selecting the current school as our number one choice, and selecting that he is a current student on the application. When the results came out, I was shocked to find out that he did not get an offer at his current school. 14 out of the 15 students in his 3-K got offers to stay. He didn’t, and instead was offered a different school that will not work for us, and placed on the waitlist as number 1 in his current school. The current school has space for 18 students for Pre-K, so they kept 14 and invited 4 new students. And there was no sibling priority that might have pushed one current student out.
I am so sad and heartbroken for my son to not have the chance to continue with his friends for another year in the school that we love. I have been in contact with his school since I saw the results and they have been trying to figure out why it happened. We are sure there was an error somewhere. I have emailed and called the Family Welcome Center, with no responses.
We want him to stay in the school he loves. He has learned so much and his teachers are wonderful. He tells us about the fun he has with his “best friends” every day. We know all of the families in his current class and no one has plans to leave.
This is a very popular preschool, with only one class for each age. It is very unlikely that someone would say no to an offer, so even though we have #1 on the waitlist, I am feeling like there is barely a chance.
I am a teacher at a DOE school that is one block away from the current school. I ranked my school’s pre-k second on our application (because I know it only gets filled with sibling priority students) and he is #24 on that waitlist. I am on so many waitlists and not even close to a low number, but really we just want to stay at the school we love.
I am planning to go to the Family Welcome Center on Monday morning. But what is going to happen? Would they ever rescind an offer? I know that two of the new students that were offered spots haven’t accepted yet. How should I approach this?