anolSummer Edition: 2026-2027 Program Year | | Important Dates and Deadlines: | |
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July 31: 2025-2026 Final Reports, FS-10Fs, and SUFDPK M/WBE Compliance Reports Due
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August 31: 2026-2027 UPK Application due. See the 2026-2027 Application webinar and 2026-2027 FS-10 webinar for additional guidance.
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October: UPK Monitoring Season Begins
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2026-2027 UPK Child Counts Reporting Guidelines Memo
UPK funding is directly determined by the exact number of students served in a given school year. To ensure accurate allocations of UPK funding, all school districts are required to report their UPK enrollment numbers (Child Counts) to the Department annually.
To maintain alignment with the P-12 data system, districts must submit exact UPK enrollment, demographic, and program service data to the Student Information Repository System (SIRS) on a monthly basis as part of the required reporting of student enrollment, demographics, and program services. These monthly submissions will be monitored for accuracy and completeness. With the new UPK funding structure established in the 2026-2027 enacted New York State budget, the number of SIRS codes used to report UPK students has been significantly reduced. This change simplifies reporting and streamlines submissions across districts.
The SIRS Program Codes for UPK Child Counts for School Year 2026-2027 are as follows:
| While monthly reporting remains mandatory, changes to the education law require the Office of Early Learning (OEL) to utilize a single child count date, the Basic Educational Data System (BEDS) Day on October 7, 2026, to determine final UPK payments for the 2026-2027 school year. This represents a change from prior years, when OEL used the higher enrollment total from two designated child count dates to calculate a district's maximum UPK funding amount. | | |
Navigating PreK Day 2026
On May 7th, 2026, the Office of Early Learning hosted its 4th Annual Navigating PreK Day at the Cultural Education Center in Albany, NY. Regent Catania (NYS Board of Regents) and Erik Sweet (Executive Director, Office of Early Learning) delivered opening remarks and welcomed over 175 attendees for a day of inspiring speakers, engaging workshops, and networking opportunities.
Administrators and educators from across New York State were able to engage in breakout sessions on various topics, including the transition from prekindergarten to kindergarten, literacy, and challenging behaviors. Attendees also had the opportunity to attend a networking roundtable to connect and collaborate. Fiscal representatives were available throughout the day to answer questions regarding budgets, amendments, and funding.
The Office of Early Learning looks forward to continuing to host this event in the future. Stay tuned in Fall 2026 for next year's Save the Date announcement.
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UPK Quick Reference Resource Document
The Office of Early Learning has created a quick reference, one-page resource document to assist districts in finding the UPK resources they need. These resources are designed to support educators, administrators, and program leaders in providing high-quality early learning experiences for New York's youngest learners.
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Office of Early Learning
2025-2026 Webinar Series
The Office of Early Learning hosted three live webinars during the 2025-2026 school year on cultural connections, the transition from prekindergarten to kindergarten, and learning centers. Couldn't make it to a live webinar? Check out all of the Office of Early Learning's past recorded webinars on our Early Learning Webinars webpage. Here you'll find our 2025-2026 webinars, as well as professional development related to literacy, science, play, inclusion, and more!
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The Office of Early Learning Welcomes New Supervisor, Tiffany Horen!
Tiffany Horen is our new Supervisor of Education Programs in the Office of Early Learning’s Brooklyn Office and will work alongside OEL’s leadership team. Before working as an Associate in Instructional Services for Early Learning, Tiffany taught in elementary schools across NYC, most recently with The Neighborhood School (M363) in Manhattan. As part of her leadership in the Brooklyn office, Tiffany will lead the UPK support and monitoring for programs in NYC and the neighboring regions. Please join us in welcoming Tiffany Horen to the Early Learning Leadership team!
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The Office of Early Learning Visits Ossining Children's Center in Ossining, NY
In late May, Executive Director Erik Sweet met with Howard Milbert to tour the Ossining Children’s Center in Ossining, NY. During his visit, Erik had a chance to see the program and talk to Howard about the perspective of being a collaborating agency for UPK. One of the highlights was seeing the student garden. Thanks to Howard and the staff of Ossining Children’s Center for the tour and invitation!
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UPK Collaboration Council Report
The UPK Collaboration Council was formed by the NYSED Office of Early Learning (OEL) and OCFS Division of Child Care Services in 2024 to explore challenges to collaborating for UPK and creating solutions for continued collaboration between school districts and the CBOs. The UPK Collaboration Council members represented school districts, childcare programs, and other early childhood entities. Workgroups identified potential long and short-term solutions that would support the collaborative relationship in delivering universal prekindergarten services. The group identified four focus areas, which included funding, program requirements, teacher qualifications and retention, and instructional requirements. This report reflects the recommendations of the committee.
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Office of Early Learning Visits Amsterdam CSD
Erik Sweet and Tanya Amodio-Kovacs from the Office of Early Learning visited Amsterdam’s UPK program in early June 2026. They took a tour of the programs and had a chance to meet the staff and the Superintendent to talk about their program (and see some Lego building in action!).
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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
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Photo of the best practice in action (please do not include student or teacher faces in photos)
- 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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Helpful Resources/Professional Development:
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Office of Early Learning
Erik Sweet, Executive Director
Lori Smart, Director
Tanya Amodio-Kovacs, Supervisor
Tiffany Horen, Supervisor
Vicky Woods, Supervisor
Associates in Instructional Services
Lauren Cosamano, Carly Feldman, Jason Gish,
Noelle Lake, Christine Lyons, Terry Onofrio,
Brandon Orszulak, Madison Ramnes, Tina Rose-Turriglio,
Christina Ryan, Michelle Sidoti, Zak Snyder
Assistants in Instructional Services
Samantha Chobot, Chloe Ng,
Rachel Schlude, Megan Tobiasen
Administrative Specialist 1
Meghan Hooley
Education Finance Specialist 2
Eric Feml-Nelsen
Education Finance Specialist 1
James Bordis, Gregory Shaw, Hidaya Madi
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