Schedules and hours
Part-time schedules, two or three fixed days
Cheaper than full-time, better than hourly, and available only on fixed days — which is a constraint with a reason rather than an inconvenience with an excuse.
Part-time is the most under-offered product in this trade and often the right answer. For a family sharing care with a grandparent, working compressed hours, or easing back after leave, two or three days is what is actually needed and full-time is what gets sold.
The one firm condition is that the days are the same every week. That is not administrative tidiness — it is the only way the arithmetic works for the children on the other days.
Why the days cannot rotate
Because a part-time place is shared. If your child is here Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, another child is very likely here Thursday and Friday in the same permitted place, and that family planned their working week around it exactly as you did.
Rotating days would mean the other family's days rotate too, which means neither of you has a schedule. Multiply by a room and it stops being a nursery and becomes a booking system nobody can rely on.
It also matters for your child. A two-year-old who comes on the same days each week knows which morning is a nursery morning. One who comes on shifting days does not, and it shows in how long they take to settle each time.
Which combinations we can actually staff
We will tell you before you plan around one. Monday-Wednesday-Friday and Tuesday-Thursday are the easiest pairs to match because they complement each other exactly; three consecutive days are harder, and a single day on its own we generally cannot do at all.
Availability also differs by room. The infant room has the least part-time flexibility because eight places and a one-to-four ratio leave very little room to split anything.
If the combination you need is one we cannot staff, we will say so at the first conversation rather than putting you on a list for something that is not going to appear.
Adding a day, permanently or occasionally
Occasionally: at the hourly rate, where a place is genuinely free that day. Booked a day ahead, and sometimes the answer is no for reasons set out on the hourly page.
Permanently: subject to the same matching problem. Moving from two days to three means finding a third day that works for you and does not break the family sharing your place, so it is a conversation rather than a form.
Our permit caps how many children may be here at once. Our permit states the maximum number of children who may be on these premises at any moment the programme is operating, set by the Health Department from the space, the teaching staff and the certificate of occupancy. That number counts children present, not children enrolled — so an hourly child takes up a permitted place in exactly the way a full-time child does. This is the honest reason we cannot always say yes to a drop-in, and the reason to be sceptical of anybody in New York City advertising unlimited same-day availability. It is a legal ceiling, not a scheduling preference.
Included as standard
What is included
Two fixed days at 45% of full
The same two days every week.
Three fixed days at 65% of full
The same three days every week.
All meals on the days attended
Breakfast, cooked lunch and two snacks, as on any other day.
A place in a room, not a floating slot
Your child belongs to a room, with the same adults, on the days they are here.
An honest answer about which combinations work
Before you rearrange your working week, not after.
Occasional extra days at the hourly rate
$28 an hour with a two-hour minimum, where a place is genuinely free.
Settling sessions, unbilled
The same two weeks as a full-time start.
Priority for extra days when they come free
Existing part-time families are asked first when a place opens up.
When to make an appointment
Signs this is worth an assessment
- You share care with a grandparent or a partner on fixed days.
- You work compressed hours or a genuinely part-time week.
- You are easing back after parental leave and do not want five days yet.
- You have been booking hourly sessions most weeks and it is costing more than it should.
- You want your child to know which mornings are nursery mornings.
- You want to be told plainly whether the combination you need can be staffed.
Part-time — what it costs
- Two fixed days is 45% of the full-day rate and three fixed days is 65%. Days must be the same every week, because the child on the other days is a different child and the ratio has to work for both.45% or 65% of full
Every rate on this site is published in full on the tuition page, including the ones that make us look expensive. Meals, snacks, nappy changing, settling-in sessions and the whole curriculum are inside the weekly fee — there is no premium tier and no outside provider invoicing you separately for a music class. The two charges that are not in the weekly fee are registration, at $75 a year per family rather than per child, and late collection after 6:15pm at $1 a minute, which goes to the two members of staff who stayed. If your child is three or four, read the 3-K page before you read this one.
Questions we are actually asked
Part-time — frequently asked
Can I choose different days each week?
No, and this is the one thing we do not flex on. Your child's place is very likely shared with another family on the other days, and rotating yours means rotating theirs. It also matters developmentally: a child who comes on the same days knows which morning is a nursery morning.
What does part-time cost?
Two fixed days is 45% of the full-day rate for that room and three fixed days is 65%, with all meals included on the days attended.
Which day combinations do you have?
Monday-Wednesday-Friday and Tuesday-Thursday match each other exactly and are the easiest. Three consecutive days are harder and a single day alone we generally cannot do. Availability is tightest in the infant room, where the ratio leaves very little to split.
Can I add a day when I need one?
Occasionally, at $28 an hour with a two-hour minimum, where a place is genuinely free that day. Existing part-time families are asked first when a permanent day opens up.
Is part-time cheaper per day than full-time?
No. Two days at 45% is more per day than five days at 100%, because the place still has to be matched and held. It is cheaper in total, which is usually the number that matters.
Related programmes
Families who read this also read
Full-day care
Seven in the morning to a quarter past six, five days a week. The schedule most families actually need and few nurseries actually keep.
From $345 / week
Half-day
Seven thirty until half past twelve, lunch included. Cheaper than a full day, but not by half — the place is still held all day.
70% of the full-day rate
Hourly & drop-in
Genuinely hourly, genuinely bookable, and genuinely limited — because our permit caps how many children may be in the building at once.
$28 / hour
Backup care
For the day your usual arrangement fails. Registered in advance, used when you need it, and honest about how often it is available.
$32 / hourTuesday and Thursday mornings, while the children are here
Come and see the room
A tour here happens during a session, in the room your child would actually be in, at the time of day they would be in it. You meet the person who leads that room rather than only the director, and you see the noise and the mess that are genuinely there. It takes an hour. If your child is three or four we will ask whether you have applied for free 3-K or Pre-K for All before we quote you a rate, because a good many families should not be paying us at all.