Update 9/17/2024 Registration for the UPK 2025-2026 will begin in January 2025 for children born in the year 2021.  (We will update this webpage in January with further information).  FYI: We will be using the same process as in previous years to place students. To become familiar with our process, please read the UPK 2024-2025 information below. 

Update 7/2024 We are now adding eligible children to our UPK wait list for the 2024/2025 school year.  To be added to our UPK wait list, please email LColella@pobschools.org, and kindly provide your child's full name, DOB, address, parent name and telephone number.  Thank you.

UPK 2024-2025

We are happy to announce that the Plainview-Old Bethpage Central School District is planning to offer a Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK) program for the 2024-2025 school year. Children must be born in 2020, being 4 years-of-age, on or before December 31, 2024, to be eligible to participate and be a resident of the Plainview-Old Bethpage Central School District. This program is fully funded by Federal and New York State Department of Education grants. All placements in the program are contingent upon the reauthorization of the Universal Pre-Kindergarten grants.

The Universal Pre-K program will be a full-day program, running Monday through Friday, offered through partnerships with Universal Pre-Kindergarten centers located within the District. The program (first day of school) will begin on or about September 3, 2024, and will follow the school district calendar. There is NO COST to participate in this program. The hours of the school day are 9:00 am-2 pm. Wrap-around services for “before-care” and/or “after-care” are additional expenses not covered by the grants. Parents and guardians are responsible for providing transportation for their child. The curriculum follows NYS Pre-Kindergarten Standards and is taught by New York State Certified Teachers. The lottery registration opens January 3, 2024, and closes on January 18, 2024. If interest exceeds available placements, a lottery system will be utilized. Please use this link to enter the lottery. The lottery will close on January 18, 2024 at 3:00 p.m. We will then verify names, birth dates, residency. We will alert those of their lottery positon starting on February 7, 2024 via the email address that you have provided to us when you entered the lottery. Please be sure to check your email. 

This is NOT a first-come, first-served lottery. Registering for the lottery does not take the place of the registration process. If your child is selected to participate in the UPK program, additional information such as a birth certificate and proof of residency within the Plainview-Old Bethpage Central School District will be required.

We will notify families of their lottery position for UPK placement on February 7, 2024 via EMAIL. After notification of your lottery spot, we will begin the selection process. Please note the selection process may start several weeks after notification, as Federal and State grants must be confirmed. Please check your email - we will also call you at the phone number provided.

Please review the following information regarding the application process:

• Seats are limited to approximately 230 students and placement is not guaranteed.
• Students will be selected for the program by a randomized lottery to be observed by the District’s auditing firm. Please see information below on entering the lottery. Requests to enter the lottery past the deadline are unable to be accommodated.
• If you miss the lottery deadline, we cannot add you to the lottery. We will place all late entries on a wait list to contact after all lottery entries have been exhausted.
• Parents/guardians who have entered the lottery will be given the opportunity to rank the participating Pre-K centers in order of preference.
• The number of seats available at each of the locations for the Pre-K program is limited, and placement will be determined by the results of the randomized lottery.
• In order to provide a fair and consistent process for all qualified residents, we cannot honor requests to switch locations.
• Once all seats are filled, children will be placed on a waiting list.
• Twins/Multiples will be treated as individual entries and not linked together.
• Students must be a Plainview-Old Bethpage Central School District resident and be 4 years of age on or before December 31, 2024 (a birthdate between January 1, 2020, and December 31, 2020) in order to participate.

Any questions may be directed to POBUPK@pobschools.org