Registration - Frequently Asked Questions

Priority registration ensures consistency and stability for children within our system. Minimizing transitions allows children to maintain relationships, routines, and continuity in their learning environment, which is critical for their development.

Children currently enrolled in a Boston Pre-K program, regardless of their funding source, are given priority for Boston Pre-K seats to support their ongoing growth and success.

Your child is eligible for Priority Registration if any of the following apply:

• They are currently enrolled in a Boston Pre-K program provider (but not in a UPK seat) and are aging into a 3-year-old classroom.

• They are currently in a 3-year-old Boston Pre-K seat and are aging up into a 4-year-old seat.

• They are currently on the program’s waitlist and will meet the Boston Pre-K eligibility criteria by September 1, 2025. 

Note that the child must turn 3 or 4 by September 1st of the school year they are enrolling in, and be resident of the City of Boston.

No, Priority Registration does not guarantee a seat. It allows eligible children to register before the general application opens on January 6. If Boston Pre-K funds seats for the child’s age group in the following school year, they may be assigned a seat. If more children submit a priority registration application than there are seats available, the program will use internal criteria to allocate seats.

No, Priority Registration only applies to the program your child currently attends. Suppose you wish to apply to a program different from the one your child attends. In that case, you’ll need to go through the general application process, which opens on January 6, and you must agree to forfeit your priority seat at the program where you originally registered.

Yes. If a family wants to change their ranked sites after submitting the application, they must edit and resubmit the existing application.

Every site that a family selects in their application has an individual timestamp. This means that adjusting one of their ranked sites will not impact the timestamp for the other sites.

No, Priority Registration only applies to the program where your child is currently enrolled.

When a family accepts an offer, it immediately voids any other seat offers and removes them from any other waitlist they were on. Therefore, if a family decides to change from one provider to another after accepting a seat, this will be considered as starting a new application. Consequently, they will be added to the end of the waitlist of the provider they are newly requesting.

If you are no longer interested in a Boston Pre-K seat, you should log into Great Starts and decline all the offers and waitlists you were added to. Once you decline all your options, your application will be withdrawn. 

To complete an application, you will need to upload one (1) proof of your child's age and two (2) proof of address. Please note that the two proofs of address submitted must be different documents (i.e. submitting a gas bill for two different months does not account for two different proofs of address). 

Valid proofs of age are:

• Birth Certificate

• Child’s up-to-date immunization record

• I-94 Form

• Child’s Passport

Valid proofs of Address are: 

• Utility Bill (not water or cell phone) dated within the past 60 days

• A Deed, Mortgage Payment dated within the past 60 days, or Property Tax Bill dated within the last year

• A current Lease, Section 8 Agreement, or BPS Landlord Affidavit, dated within a year

• A W2 form dated with the year or a Payroll Stub dated within the past 60 days

• A Bank or Credit Card Statement dated within the past 60 days

• A Letter from an Approved Government Agency dated within the past 60 days

• Residency/Landlord Affidavit dated within a year

• IF EXPERIENCING HOUSING INSECURITY: a shelter letter, self-declaration from the provider, or a letter from DCF (Note: in this case, the same document can be uploaded for both Proof of Address 1 and 2, no other documentation is necessary)

If a site is marked as “Full” on the application, it means that this site has received enough applications to fill the available Boston Pre-K seats. 

However, if a family is interested in a program labeled “full,” they are still encouraged to rank it in their options. The family will be placed on the waitlist for this program. There is a chance that a seat might open in the future as families might take a seat at another program or a BPS school. 

If all the sites a family ranks are “full,” the Boston Pre-K team will contact them to ask if they would like to be put on a waitlist or referred to another Boston Pre-K site with available seats.

Yes. If a family applies to Boston Public Schools and wants to be considered for a Boston Pre-K seat at a Community-based organization, they must apply to Boston Pre-K through Great Starts. The family will be required to enter their information and submit documentation again. The application for Boston Public Schools will only offer seats at Boston Public Schools and currently is entirely independent of the Great Starts application. 

No. As per EEC policy, joining Boston Pre-K will not affect a family’s voucher status. If a family has a Boston Pre-K seat, they can use their vouchers for before-school care, after-school care, summer care, or other non-Boston Pre-K days at the Boston Pre-K program. Availability and cost for such programs will vary according to each site. 

Applying directly to a partner program means you are applying for their private or non-Boston Pre-K-funded seats, which may include tuition or other fees. Submitting an application through Boston Pre-K is for tuition-free seats funded by Boston Pre-K, and your child must meet eligibility requirements.

No. However, Boston Pre-K does have the Connector System, which gives priority to Boston Pre-K children during the BPS lottery assignment for K2 in certain schools. This does not guarantee a connection between a Boston Pre-K setting and a particular BPS school for K2; instead, it provides families of Boston Pre-K children with a higher probability of being placed in specific schools for K2. To be considered to be eligible for the Boston Pre-K Connector System, families must register their child during the annual BPS K2 priority registration period. 

Find video explanations of the Connector System in multiple languages here.

No. Boston Pre-K is a 6.5-hour school day for 180 days per year, aligned with the school calendar of Boston Public Schools. Boston Pre-K does not include before-school care, after-school care, or summer school.