How enrolment works

1. You call, or you send the form

   Tell us your child's date of birth, the days and hours you need, and when you need to start. We will tell you on that first call whether we have a place, whether we have a waiting list, and roughly where on it you would sit. If the answer is no we say no — a nursery that keeps every family hopeful keeps every family waiting.

2. We ask whether you should be paying us at all

   If your child was born in 2022 or 2023 and you live in New York City, there is a free full-day 3-K or pre-K place you may be entitled to, and we will ask whether you have applied before we quote you a weekly rate. If you are on Cash Assistance you qualify for a child care voucher regardless of income. Both of those cost us money to mention and we mention them anyway.

3. You visit, during a session, while the children are here

   Not an evening open house with the rooms tidied. You see the room your child would be in, at the time of day they would be in it, with the noise and the mess that are actually there. You meet the person who would lead the room, not only the director. Tours run Tuesday and Thursday mornings and take an hour.

4. The paperwork, which is genuinely a lot

   A health form signed by your child's physician, a complete immunisation record, emergency contacts, collection authorisations, and a written plan for any allergy or medical need. This is Health Code requirement rather than nursery preference, and no child can start without it — including a child booked for a single hourly session.

5. Settling in, over two weeks

   Short sessions first, with you in the building, then short sessions without you, then a full day. Two weeks is the normal length and some children need three. We do not charge for settling sessions and we will not tell you a distressed child is fine when they are not.

6. The first month, and an honest review at the end of it

   A conversation four weeks in about how it is actually going: sleep, food, language, friendships, and whether the days you chose are the right ones. If the arrangement is not working we will say so and help you change it, including changing it to somewhere that is not here.

If your child is three or four, the City may do this for nothing. New York City gives every resident three- and four-year-old a free, full-day place in 3-K or Pre-K for All, regardless of family income or immigration status. For the 2026-2027 year that meant children born in 2023 for 3-K and 2022 for pre-K, with applications open from 14 January to 27 February 2026. We are raising this before we quote you a weekly rate, on the pages where you are most likely to be about to pay us, because a family paying for a four-year-old's daytime hours without having applied is usually spending money the City would have covered. Families still pay us for these ages for good reasons — hours beyond what a free place covers, or not getting one — and neither of those is a reason to leave the question unasked.

New York has no religious or philosophical vaccine exemption. Every child in day care in New York State must be immune to diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, measles, mumps, rubella, polio, hepatitis B, varicella, Hib and pneumococcal disease. New York abolished the non-medical exemption in 2019, so there is no religious or philosophical route around this and no nursery may offer you one. A child who is behind must receive at least the first dose of every required vaccine within fourteen days of starting. A genuine medical exemption signed by a physician is the only exception and it is uncommon.