Winter Edition: 2025-2026 Program Year | | Important Dates and Deadlines: | |
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January 2026: Finalize RFPs for collaboration with eligible agencies and post publicly if not already collaborating at 10%.
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March 13, 2026: Prekindergarten child counts pulled from this date will be used in conjunction with October 1, 2025 child counts to determine final payments for prekindergarten funding. See the 2025-2026 PreK Child Counts memo for more information.
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Excellent News for Universal Prekindergarten in New York!
Building on the Board of Regents and the Department's efforts to expand UPK across the state, the Governor has proposed additional funding for Universal Prekindergarten and to make UPK funds available to all school districts. The Executive Budget provides support to ensure truly universal full-day prekindergarten (Pre-K) for all four-year-olds in the State by the start of SY 2029. The Department is grateful for this commitment to prekindergarten as an early start to education has so many benefits for students.
According to the budget:
“Governor Hochul is proposing to ensure that by SY 2029, all four-year-old children statewide have the option of attending a full-day prekindergarten program. To help school districts accomplish this objective, the Executive Budget significantly increases the State’s contribution for Pre-K seats for four-year-olds – both for the roughly 115,000 existing seats and for the new seats that will be created as districts expand their programs – to equal the greater of $10,000 or the district’s current selected Foundation Aid per pupil. These new rates will be available to school districts starting in SY 2027, allowing districts to serve more students in Pre-K programs immediately.”
This proposed budget would provide $1.6 billion for Universal Pre-K Aid in SY 2027, a $561M (53%) increase over SY 2026 levels. Additionally, the UPK Aid per pupil is raised for every district to the greater of $10,000 or Foundation Aid. As the Office of Early Learning learns more we will provide updates and guidance.
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2025-2026 PreK Child Counts Reporting Deadline and Guidance
As a reminder, the 2025-2026 PreK Child Counts Reporting Guidelines memo and the 2025-2026 Child Counts Reporting Guidance document are available to assist districts when reporting child counts for the 2025-2026 school year. Please refer to these resources for guidance on ensuring accurate and complete data are reported. Errors in coding may result in a reduction in the district’s reimbursement amount.
New SIRS codes have been introduced for the 2025-2026 school year to streamline PreK Child Count submissions. As a result, districts receiving SUFDPK funding no longer need to separately report enrollment in the NYSED Business Portal - all required reporting will now be captured through SIRS. Please see the above Child Counts memo and the 2025-2026 Funding and Coding Overview document for a more detailed breakdown of each code.
As in the 2024-2025 school year, all PreK student counts must be inputted monthly via the Student Information Repository System (SIRS).
To calculate the final payment for the 2025-2026 program year, OEL will look at the data sets from October 1, 2025 and March 13, 2026, and select the higher of the two.
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RFP Guidance for School Districts Running UPK
Education Law 3602-e(5)(e) requires school districts to set aside, at a minimum, 10% of their allocation to collaborate with eligible agencies to provide prekindergarten instructional services. The Office of Early Learning has created a guidance document to help school districts develop a process that ensures fair and open competition when seeking eligible agencies to collaborate with for prekindergarten programming. Using a Request for Proposal (RFP), the district should detail every aspect of the requirements of a proposed prekindergarten program. Districts can refer to 8 CRR-NY 151-1.6 for a detailed description of the Regulations of the Commissioner regarding the competitive process requirements.
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P-3 Cultural Connections Recording Available
On November 12th, 2025, staff from the Office of Early Learning and the Office of Cultural Education presented on the P-3 Cultural Connections Framework and Resource Kit. This resource is designed to help educators bring experiential learning into early childhood classrooms and connect students with cultural opportunities through field trips, virtual visits, traveling programs, grant opportunities, and more. A recording of this webinar and additional resources can be found at the P-3 Cultural Connections webpage.
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Office of Early Learning
2025-2026 Webinar Series
As we begin the 2025–2026 school year, the Office of Early Learning is excited to offer a new series of webinars designed to strengthen and enrich early childhood education across our schools. This year’s sessions will explore key topics including cultural connections in early learning, the transition from prekindergarten to kindergarten, and utilizing learning centers in the early education classroom.
These webinars are intended to provide practical strategies, valuable insights, and meaningful resources to support educators and school leaders in nurturing successful early learning experiences.
Be sure to mark your calendars and register for these upcoming sessions! Check out our Early Learning Webinar Series webpage for more information.
Transition from Prekindergarten to Kindergarten
Wednesday, February 4th 3-4PM
Register on Zoom for the Transition from PreK to K webinar
Learning Centers for Prekindergarten and Kindergarten
Wednesday, May 13th 3-4PM
Register on Zoom for the Learning Centers for PreK and K webinar
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PreK Fiscal Guidance Handbook
The 2025-2026 Office of Early Learning Fiscal Guidance Handbook is now available for download. This document will help guide the reader through the FS-10, FS-25, FS-10A, and FS-10F process. It also includes information on M/WBE for SUFDPK grantees, a calendar of important dates and deadlines, as well as a funding stream graphic organizer.
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Classroom Spotlight: Buffalo CSD
Ms. Dawn Grover, a PreK teacher at Buffalo Public Schools, designs a developmentally appropriate classroom where play drives learning. For the theme “Taking Care,” she created a doctor’s office in dramatic play, allowing students to check in patients, give shots, and pretend to be doctors. Literacy is integrated through the iPad Osmo center with hands-on letter practice, while block play encourages collaboration as students build a hospital.
The theme extends across multiple centers. At the light table, children assemble a skeleton like an X-ray, in the science center students match body parts with vocabulary words, and in the art center, students express themselves through drawing, painting, and storytelling with teacher support. These experiences show how Ms. Grover intentionally connects play to instructional goals through hands-on thematic learning.
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Classroom Spotlight: Clarkstown CSD
Clarkstown Central School District in Rockland County recently celebrated the opening of three new special education preschool classrooms at its Early Learning Center. The Center is home to a district-run daycare (ages 10 months to 4 years) and Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK) classrooms.
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One of the district's objectives for this school year was to provide families with more opportunities to participate in their child's school experience. To meet this goal, Clarkstown CSD hosted its first Fall Festival in October. Families were invited to join students for an afternoon of fall fun. Attendees enjoyed a variety of outdoor activities, including seasonal party games, collaborative large-block building, hands-on craft stations, engaging sensory tables, and a lively bubble station.
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Successfully meeting a key objective for the year, the Festival served as a milestone: it was the first school-wide event for families from the newly established special education preschool classrooms, fully integrating them into the school community. A great time was truly had by all.
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Clarkstown CSD remains firmly committed to advancing student learning and continuing the growth of the Early Learning Center, ensuring all of our youngest learners are prepared for a bright future.
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NYSUT Science of Reading Course: A Practical Approach for Educators
NYSUT is proud to introduce The Science of Reading: A Practical Approach for Educators. This comprehensive reading education course is offered free of charge and designed to equip educators with the most current, research-based strategies for teaching literacy. Built on a balanced and blended approach, this course incorporates key methods from various reading education philosophies, ensuring that students can thrive in their reading development.
Designed for educators at all levels, this course delves into evidence-based instructional techniques rooted in the latest literacy research, empowering teachers to elevate their classroom practices. Participants will learn from renowned experts and explore key models like the Simple View of Reading and Scarborough's Reading Rope, to understand how to improve students’ reading fluency, comprehension and word recognition.
Funding for this program was provided through Governor Hochul's "Back to Basics" reading plan, which allocated 10 million dollars from the 2024-25 budget to train teachers in the science of reading.
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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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Erik Sweet, Executive Director, Office of Early Learning
Lori Smart, Director
Tanya Amodio-Kovacs, Supervisor
Vicky Woods, Supervisor
James Bordis, Samantha Chobot,
Lauren Cosamano, Carly Feldman,
Eric Feml-Nelsen, Jason Gish, Meghan Hooley,
Tiffany Koo, Noelle Lake, Christine Lyons, Hidaya Madi
Chloe Ng, Terry Onofrio, Brandon Orszulak,
Madison Ramnes, Tina Rose-Turriglio, Christina Ryan,
Rachel Schlude, Greg Shaw, Michelle Sidoti,
Zak Snyder, Megan Tobiasen
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