By YOAV GONEN
May 29, 2008
Stunned parents are charging that the Department of Education's new system for pre-kindergarten enrollment has wrongly denied their kids coveted spots for the upcoming school year.
Despite a clause that grants seating priority to siblings of kids enrolled at a school, dozens of parents who assumed their applications were a lock said they were shocked to receive rejection letters this week.
The Department of Education promised seating priority first to siblings and then to kids zoned for a school.
But Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum said the DOE wasn't abiding by those guidelines. "I am troubled by these early indications of problems."
Department spokesman Andrew Jacob said most complaints involved parents who wrongly believed they qualified for priority placement or whose application data contained errors.
