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Last school year, New York City officials enacted a new rule for preschools to help working families. Instead of starting with limited hours to ease students into the program, they were required to offer a full-day program on the first day.

But a year after the new rules were due to come into force, many providers are still sticking to the phased approach, arguing that it is more appropriate to slowly introduce children as young as two to a new environment. Others said they were unaware of the change, which was communicated in an internal newsletter.

The discrepancy between policy and practice has caused frustration among families, with some schools making last-minute changes to school opening hours in the weeks before school starts – apparently an attempt to comply with policy. In other cases, parents are still unsure what school opening days will look like.

The website for PS 58 in Brooklyn states that preschoolers will be “part-time” on Sept. 5 – the first day of school. One mother said she has made several phone calls and emails to find out if she will need to arrange child care for the afternoon or if full-day options will be offered in accordance with city regulations.

“We haven’t heard anything,” said the mother, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of straining her relationship with school officials. She and her husband both work and have no local family to fill the gaps in child care. “Parents need a full-day school,” she said.

To make matters worse, she has not yet found out which preschool at the school her four-year-old son will attend, making it impossible for her to enroll him in an after-school program. She fears that if they do not get an after-school spot, her husband will have to work part-time.

The principal of PS 58 did not respond to an email seeking comment. A Department of Education spokesperson did not respond when asked if PS 58 will offer a full-day program on the first day of school.

Many preschools stick to a gradual schedule

The move to full-day programs starting on the first day of school would be a departure from a longstanding practice at many public schools and also at nonprofits that form the backbone of the city’s free preschool programs for 3- and 4-year-olds. Educators and providers say there are good reasons for this approach.

“Without this adjustment period, children may cry in despair on the first day of school or even run out of the classroom to follow their parents down the hall,” says Helen Frazier, a preschool teacher in Brooklyn. “If they associate the early childhood environment with this stress, the lingering effects of it may be evident well into the fall.”

With the start of the last school year, the Department of Education updated its handbook for preschool providers. It now states: “All programs should begin the school year with full-time instruction to support working families and others.” Families who want their children to attend part-time classes can request this for up to three weeks of the school year.

“By offering full-day 3K and pre-K child care from day one, parents and guardians will not have to make the difficult decision of cutting critical work hours or paying out of pocket for short-term, additional child care,” Department of Education spokeswoman Chyann Tull wrote in a statement.

In many cases, however, the policy change has resulted in little change in how providers operate. Several community organizations that still offer a phased approach told Chalkbeat they would be happy to offer full-day activities for families who need them, as they have in the past. Tull did not say directly whether offering a part-time option as a default violates department policy.

Staci White, director of preschool programs at St. Nick’s Alliance, a Brooklyn community organization that runs preschool programs, said students are typically phased into classes to get to know their teachers before the traditional school year begins. She plans to offer a half-day of school on the official first day of school and a full day of school on the second day.

“I realize that may not be what is in a policy statement,” she said. “But a lot of what the Department of Education puts out are policy statements that are not in the best interests of students, staff or families, and the communication around that is often very vague.”

Last year, she said, the organization offered a full-day option from day one to adjust to the new policy, but no families took up the offer. “We accommodate families when they say they have no other choice,” she said.

Children’s Aid, which operates nine child care centers in the Bronx, Manhattan and Staten Island, also plans to gradually roll out in the fall. Before the school year begins, the organization’s staff typically conducts social-emotional assessments and home visits as part of a “gentle transition to school,” says Moria Cappio, the organization’s chief of staff.

The first day of school usually lasts a few hours and families are invited to accompany their children to class. From the fourth day of school onwards, students usually have a full day schedule.

“Just dropping the child off at the door and not seeing the parents for six hours doesn’t work for every child,” Cappio said. While the organization can accommodate families who want a full-day program right away, Cappio said it often works with families individually to find the right approach for their child.

A former Education Department official who worked in the Early Childhood Division under former Mayor Bill de Blasio said the uncoordinated implementation of the full-day policy could be the result of an overhaul of the department that began under Vice Chancellor Kara Ahmed, who recently resigned from that position.

“I have to imagine that because of all the downsizing in the early childhood department in recent years, a lot of the policy infrastructure is no longer there,” said the former staffer, who spoke on condition of anonymity about the current administration’s policies. “This is probably a very visible symptom of that.”

The city’s teachers union is also pushing to overturn the new rules. Karen Alford, the union’s vice president of elementary schools, said in a statement that the union had expressed its concerns to Ahmed about the requirement to offer full-day programs immediately.

“It was never a developmentally sound decision,” Alford wrote. “We hope that now, with the change in leadership of the city’s early childhood programs, we can reconsider this policy.”

Meanwhile, some families are feeling uneasy about starting the school year with a full-day program.

Stephanie Leal of Brooklyn asked for a leave of absence expecting her 3-year-old daughter’s preschool to begin in a phased model, but the school recently told her it would offer full-day classes immediately.

“I’m a little nervous,” said Leal, who is a member of the advocacy group New Yorkers United for Childcare. Although her daughter has been attending daycare since she was 15 months old, this will be “a little more like a school environment and she won’t be one of the oldest anymore.”

Still, she said standardizing the full-day program for families with less flexible work schedules seems to be the right citywide strategy.

“I think this is the right thing to do,” she said. “Kids are pretty resilient and will adapt.”

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York covering New York public schools. Contact Alex at [email protected].