Hellobee Boards

I would think it was school dependent. Our school is incredibly competitive to get into and if you want to be considered you have to actually call on a certain morning (usually in January), leave a voicemail, and then they call back and say if you got in or not. It's kind of insane. They also have to already have your application in and payment.

We were lucky that we already went there for Mother's Day Out so he was automatically "in," but if he wasn't I would have started reaching out in September the year before he was supposed to start to different schools. I would have then made a spreadsheet concerning what each school's protocol was for applying and toured / acted accordingly.

ETA: If you have 1 or 2 top choices, I would email and just ask if there is an existing list.

For DD's preschool, they let parents know in February if their child is admitted for the September school year. We put our names down 1 year ahead of time. In our area, you typically need to put names down 1-1.5 years before the start date.

I found it to be school dependent. We ended up with a private Nature Preschool and they have a rolling admissions depending on space, BUT they hold their open houses in the winter and all spaces were filled by April.

The school-based one I looked into had open houses in February and began admissions then... I think it just really depends on space and what kind of timing you want. I think preference is often given to "full time" over part time.

If you want her in preschool for Fall of 2018, I would look this winter to apply.

In my area, it seems like most parents start looking in the fall before the kids will start- open houses and such seem to be October and November. Then applications go in January-ish. I think some schools and specific classes are more and less selective.

What I did was buy a house in early August and immediately contact the preschools in the area to see who had an opening for a newly 3 year old. I totally lucked out and there was one opening due to a cancellation over the summer at the school that had been recommended by a few different people. She actually started school a few days before we moved in.

I will start looking this fall when my daughter turns 2, so that she can have a spot somewhere next fall when she's turning 3.

@raspberries: I don't understand the difference between preschools and daycares for 18m/ 2 year olds honestly (we starting looking now, at 17 months) which is when my area starts offering some nice options.... I know NY says kids can only go to "preschool" 2 hours a day and the structure is more... structured. But I don't get the semantics I guess.

@raspberries: yeah 3 around here is full preschool. 2.9?! what does that even mean? would a few weeks of age matter?

@raspberries: we decided to start earlier than planned and by stroke of luck got in. Now for the same school there is a waitlist for sure!

The second time we had to look (although we ended up registering for public school TK instead) we started in the late winter for the following fall. Got in off the wait list in May for the fall but turned down the spot.

@pachamama: In MA all the preschools start at 2 years, 9 months because that's how the state laws define "preschooler".

We send our kids to daycare so we don't have to worry about preschool admissions.

In NYC you apply a full year before. So for this year Sept 2017 applications started in I think October or Nov 2016. You find out in March whether they got in.
That being said, I don't think the whole process is as crazy as it used to be, thanks to technology. At least it wasn't for us. And I've heard from several people that despite missing deadlines they were still able to get into some great schools by asking once they had an idea of how many accepted and were actually attending the school. So I would say all hope isn't lost, unless you are in a town that literally has like 1 preschool.

Wow, I feel like I'm way behind by just beginning to think about preschool with my 2yo! Mil just sent me some info about 2 co-op preschools nearer her, and we'll probably go to their open house.

We toured in January, registration was in March, she started in August.