from the New York State Education Department's Office of Early Learning | |
Fall Edition: 2023-2024 Program Year | |
Important Dates and Deadlines: | |
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October 2023: SUFDPK and VRNSK Monitoring Season Begins
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Dear colleagues,
Welcome to a new school year! The Office of Early Learning is committed to supporting the needs of educators, students, and families. Our monitoring season is about to begin for districts that receive expansion grant funding (SUFDPK), so we look forward to meeting with you and visiting your school. Each Office of Early Learning staff is assigned to a district for application review, final reports, and monitoring visits. Please feel free to reach out to us at any time with questions.
In September, we held our first ever Navigating PreK Day, which allowed Prekindergarten administrators to attend presentations on the fiscal and programmatic elements of UPK, as well as meet with their Early Learning liaison. The presentations are available on our Early Learning Professional Development website.
To build off our event, we plan on holding our next Navigating PreK Day on May 2, 2024, at the Cultural Education Center in Albany. Registration information is listed below in the newsletter.
In addition to our UPK guidance, we are currently working on providing literacy guidance for early childhood and elementary grades and are developing inquiry-based science guidance. To support the arts and ensure students have access to museums and cultural experiences, we are partnering with our colleagues in the Office of Cultural Education to create a P-3 cultural education toolkit. And to continue our guidance to educators, we will hold an early learning webinar series, which will include a range of topics that span early childhood to Grade 3.
Please feel free to reach out with any questions or suggestions about how the Office of Early Learning can best support the educators in our state.
Have a wonderful school year!
Erik Sweet
Executive Director, Office of Early Learning
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Navigating PreK Day 2023
On Wednesday, September 20th the Office of Early Learning hosted its first Navigating PreK Day. Attendees participated in presentations regarding the State-Administered Prekindergarten application process, partnering with Community-Based Organizations, and working with multiple funding sources. Networking opportunities and 1:1 meetings with OEL staff were made available.
Presentation slides from the event are available at our Professional Development website below.
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P-3 Summer Institute Keynote Sessions Now Available for Viewing
The New York State Education Department is pleased to announce that the 2023 P-3 Summer Institute on August 17, 2023 was a success! The Institute which took place at the NYS Cultural Education Center in Albany was in partnership with the NYS Council on Children and Families.
Recordings of keynote presentations by Dr. Ronald Ferguson and Dr. Nonie Lesaux are now available on the Office of Early Learning's Professional Development Webpage.
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2023-2024 PreK Child Counts
Reporting and Guidance
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Each spring, school districts are required to report their prekindergarten (PreK) child counts (enrollment numbers), regardless of the funding that supports their program. For the 2023-24 school year, all student counts must be inputted via the Student Information Repository System (SIRS) and the SED Monitoring and Vendor Performance System, as applicable, on or before the close of business on March 15, 2024.
For the 2023-2024 school year, PreK child counts must reflect the actual PreK enrollment as of March 13, 2024. Please note this is a change from previous years. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, districts were temporarily given an opportunity to report enrollment through multiple pull dates and recoup funds for any child educated in their program. This provision of counting "ever-enrolled" has ended.
For more information, please email OEL@nysed.gov.
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2022-2023 Statewide Universal Full-Day PreK (SUFDPK) Round 2 Awardees | |
The Office of Early Learning is pleased to announce the Round 2 awardees of the 2022-2023 Statewide Universal Full-Day PreK (SUFDPK) grant.
Round 2 awardees are as follows:
- Adirondack CSD - $124,159
- Albany CSD - $560,000
- Alexandria CSD - $151,400
- Andover CSD - $136,967
- Bay Shore SD - $280,000
- Bayport-Blue Point SD - $100,000
- Bolton CSD - $83,000
- Cazenovia CSD - $180,000
- Chatham CSD - $200,000
- Clarkstown CSD - $2,311,600
- Copenhagen CSD - $67,150
- Floral Park-Bellerose SD - $300,000
- Franklin Square UFSD - $261,400
- Freeport UFSD - $584,072
- Greenburgh CSD - $100,000
- Hornell City SD - $180,000
- Island Trees UFSD - $360,000
- Kingston City SD - $930,000
- Lansingburgh CSD - $190,000
- Longwood CSD - $900,000
- Marion CSD - $239,358
- Moravia CSD - $186,867
- Morrisville-Eaton CSD - $253,989
- North Bellmore UFSD - $1,100,000
- North Collins CSD - $271,932
- North Rose-Wolcott CS - $183,978
- Panama CSD - $155,215
- Queensbury UFSD - $582,316
- Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk CSD - $524,891
- Sandy Creek CSD - $212,816
- Sweet Home CSD - $540,000
- Waverly CSD - $180,000
- White Plains City SD - $876,000
A full list of Round 1 and Round 2 2022-2023 Statewide Universal Full-Day PreK (SUFDPK) awardees can be found at the Office of Early Learning's Allocation and Financial Forms webpage.
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UPK Classroom Spotlight:
Mrs. Zebrowski and Mrs. Liberty are PreK teachers at Woodlawn Elementary School in the Schenectady City School District. Throughout the year, their students had the opportunity to study several different artists from various cultures. Artists included Georgia O’Keefe, Henri Matisse, Alma Woodsey Thomas, Jim Dine, and Jean-Michel Basquiat among others. During this time, students were able to learn about different cultures and build upon the concept of diversity throughout our world. As students created their own work inspired by each artist, they were able to develop problem-solving skills, refine their fine motor skills, and make connections with each other and the world around them. Students were also engaged in rich literacy and vocabulary development as they listened to stories about each artist and discussed their observations.
The culminating celebration was a PreK Art Show hosted by the students! Families were invited to attend a gallery walk with their child and view all the wonderful creations. This event allowed students to feel a sense of pride and accomplishment, and also helped strengthen the home-school connection. One family shared their plans to hold an art auction at home for grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins to bid on their child’s artwork. This event also promoted a sense of belonging in the school community as students in grades K-5 walked the art gallery with their classmates the next morning.
Not only did this year-long project and final celebration foster enthusiasm for learning among all students, but Mrs. Zebrowski and Mrs. Liberty shared how heartwarming it was to see children and families come together to make strong connections between home and school through art.
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Office of Early Learning Prekindergarten
Data Website
| The Office of Early Learning has created this resource to provide timely access to prekindergarten data. Typical data requests include counts of prekindergarten children served and counts and types of prekindergarten programs providing such services. Most recently, this database was updated to provide demographic information for prekindergarten students in each district, as well. | |
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Helpful Resources/Professional Development:
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Health and Safety Checklist | |
A school district that is operating a prekindergarten (PreK) program must follow uniform quality standards for PreK classrooms located in both school buildings and community-based organization (CBO) sites. The school district must ensure that facilities that house its PreK program are safe for the children in the program.
To assist school districts in fulfilling these obligations, the Office of Early Learning has developed a Health and Safety Checklist. School districts are encouraged to complete this checklist for each PreK site annually, at a minimum. School districts may revise the checklist to include additional items that are relevant to specific partnership(s). In addition, districts should develop plans to ensure that identified deficiencies are corrected and documented.
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UPK Classroom Spotlight Opportunity
The Office of Early Learning is looking for best practices from districts, CBO, and Direct Contract Agency UPK classrooms to spotlight throughout the year. If you are interested in sharing a success story in any of the following areas, please submit your story via email to the Office of Early Learning at OEL@nysed.gov.
- Learning centers
- Theme integration
- Building classroom community
- Differentiated instruction
- Kindergarten transition
- Diversity, equity, and inclusion in the UPK classroom
- Anything the district is inspired to share with the field
You will need to include the following information in your submission:
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Subject: UPK Spotlight Submission
- Local Education Agency Name
- Teacher Name
- Photo of the best practice in action
- 1-2 paragraphs describing the best practice and highlighting any results since its implementation.
We look forward to hearing from you!
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Your Feedback Matters
The Office of Early Learning provides technical assistance to grades P-3 in New York State.
What does support from the Office of Early Learning look like to you?
Please complete a quick survey to let us know how we can best be of assistance.
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Erik Sweet, Executive Director, Office of Early Learning
Lori Smart, Director
Tanya Amodio-Kovacs, Supervisor
James Bordis, Samantha Chobot, Paulette Coppin,
Lauren Cosamano, Carly Feldman,
Eric Feml-Nelsen, Jason Gish,
Noelle Lake, Christine Lyons,
Terry Onofrio, Brandon Orszulak, Madison Ramnes,
Tina Rose-Turriglio, Christina Ryan,
Rachel Schlude, Michelle Sidoti,
Zak Snyder, Vicky Woods
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