Universal Pre-K & tuition - can someone explain?

amother

Tue, Sep 16 2014, 10:30 pm

iluvy wrote:

We are really annoyed about this.

We paid $500/month last year (nursery). We're paying $800/month this year (kindergarten). Kindergarten is a half hour longer. She had 26 kids in her nursery class, she has 20 kids in her kindergarten class. Sure, they can charge whatever they want for the non-UPK hours, but they can't pretend that it's fair. It's outrageous that we get no tuition help from UPK whatsoever. I wish we had refused to fill out the forms Sad

OP again.

This!!!

DD's school also has a nursery. We did not end up sending DD to it, but we looked into it at the time, and the cost of nursery is HALF of the cost of kindergarten. Same hours. Same basic structure/activities as far as I know. There are, I think, actually FEWER students in the nursery classes than in DD's class.

And the nursery is a money-maker, so that means that somehow they turn a profit on $400/month per child in nursery but require $800/month per child for kindergarten plus UPK? Where in the world is the math going wrong? How much more expensive can kindergarten possibly be than nursery?

(I will point out that we are otherwise happy with the school, so far, all of two weeks into the year. But utterly puzzled by the fee structure.)

out-of-towner

Wed, Oct 25 2017, 11:18 am

UPK is for all children who were born in 2014 (for next year's class) who reside in any of the 5 Boroughs. Not every school has it, it is my understanding that the qualifications to have a UPK program are very specific and not every school wants to deal with them.

amother

Orchid

Wed, Oct 25 2017, 1:46 pm

amother wrote:

Is upk for nursery and kindergarten? Are all schooled enrolled?

Upk is the age that some frum schools call kindergarten- ie 2 years before 1St grade. (most kids are 4 sometime during that year)
Not all schools are enrolled and even those that are, beware, they do not all pass on the tuition savings to the parents and instead collect double tuition.