Registration - Frequently Asked Questions

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)

Yes. If a family applies to Boston Public Schools and wants to be considered for a Boston Pre-K seat in a community setting, 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 is currently entirely independent of the Great Starts application.

We understand that the process may be confusing, especially since Boston Pre-K lottery results are being shared on the same date—March 31, 2025. For inquiries about your seat status at any point over the course of the school year:

• For BPS Pre-K seats: Contact a BPS Welcome Center at 617-635-9000.
• For community provider Boston Pre-K seats: Contact 617-635-1507.

Please note that because these systems operate independently, a family may receive two separate offers—one from Boston Public Schools and one from a community provider setting. While accepting one offer may not impact the other, we ask families to update each provider with their final decision. This helps ensure that waitlisted families receive timely updates on seat availability. You can share your decision by contacting the respective provider at the number listed above.

After families with priority registration are placed at their current provider, an initial lottery is conducted to randomly select families from the general public for available seats in community settings. Offers are made at random, and each family receives a single best offer—meaning the system determined that this was the best possible placement for your application based on the schools you listed at the time of evaluation.

You have 14 calendar days to accept the offer, giving you time to schedule a tour and make your decision. You may also decline the offer and remain on the waitlist for the other programs you have been assigned a waitlist status for.

Please note that if you receive a single best offer, you will only remain on the waitlist for schools ranked higher than the school where the offer was made. This ensures that your chances of placement align with your highest preferences.

Boston Pre-K providers are expected to contact families within 48 hours of receiving an enrollment offer. If you do not hear from the provider within that time frame, we encourage you to assume positive intent and either call the provider directly or reach out to the Boston Pre-K office for additional support and follow-up.

Once you connect with the provider, please note that there may be additional site-specific steps required to complete your child’s enrollment. These next steps vary by provider and are managed directly by the site, not by the Boston Pre-K administrative team. Your child is not considered fully enrolled until all required steps are completed with the provider.

Once you accept an offer, you will be removed from the waitlists of any other programs where you were waitlisted.

The Boston Pre-K team immediately notifies community providers when an offer is made through Great Starts, as they do not have direct access to the database and rely on our communication to proceed with next steps for each family. As a result, providers will reach out to you within 14 days to discuss next steps, which may include the opportunity for a tour.

If you would like to contact the provider directly to initiate these steps, you may do so. You can also call our office for the best contact number for the site, or visit the Great Starts Explore page to find detailed program information for your reference.

If you have been waitlisted at all of your selected programs, no further action is required at this time. Please continue to check your waitlist application status regularly, and expect an email from our system if an offer is made for any of the programs you selected. You may stay on up to 5 waitlists.

Please note that this year, the application notification timeline for all Boston Pre-K seats—both BPS and community settings—has been aligned. As a result, we anticipate that the waitlist may fluctuate significantly over the next several months as families make their decisions for the fall. Additionally, families may transition out of seats at any time, which can cause your waitlist position to change from day to day.

 We recommend staying on as many waitlists as you are currently listed on to maximize your chances of receiving an offer in the coming months since the waitlist in Boston Pre-K across community programs might vary significantly.

Out of the five programs you ranked on your application, you may receive an offer from one of them. In this case, you will also be placed on the waitlist for any programs that were ranked higher than the one from which you received an offer. In the two weeks following the release of assignment notifications (on March 31st), your position on the waitlist(s) will change as people ahead of you either accept seats in other programs and are removed from the waitlist or choose to remain on the waitlist.

For example, if you receive an offer for your 3rd choice, you will also be assigned a waitlist number for your 1st and 2nd choices. If you decide to accept the offer for your 3rd choice, you will be removed from the waitlist for your 1st and 2nd choices. Please be aware that you have 14 calendar days to accept any seat offers. If no action is taken after this time, the offer will be revoked.

If you accept your single best offer, you will be removed from the waitlists for all other programs. If you later decide to revoke your accepted seat, you may contact the Boston Pre-K office for assistance in adding programs back to your application for consideration. However, this action will require you to forfeit your previously accepted seat. You may reach our team at 617-635-1507, or via email at bostonprek@bostonpublicschools.org. 

Our enrollment platform took several hours to process the lottery results, so it is possible that when you logged in, your waitlist number was still being finalized. This type of delay is normal for large-scale lotteries, as importing large data sets takes time to process.

Since this is our first year managing seat placements through a lottery, we could not have anticipated that families would experience live changes to their waitlist positions. We sincerely apologize for any confusion or frustration this may have caused and appreciate your patience as we refine this process to ensure it remains as fair as possible for Boston families in the future.

If you experienced this, you should not expect further changes to your waitlist number for any school where you’ve been waitlisted. Please continue to check your waitlist application status regularly, and expect an email from our system if an offer is made for any of the programs you selected.

If you receive a seat offer at the program you ranked as your number one choice and choose to decline it, please note that you will not be able to return to your original waitlist positions for the schools you ranked lower. Instead, you will need to revise your application and re-add any schools you wish to be considered for. These changes will be treated as new submissions and will receive a new timestamp.

This policy reflects our commitment to offering each family a single best seat offer based on their preferences, while also preserving the integrity of the waitlist process for other families. It ensures that those currently waitlisted are not affected by changes made after an initial offer has been extended and declined.

If you submitted an application after March 21st, your application will be reviewed by a member of our team and if fully verified, will be automatically added to the waitlist for each of the programs you have ranked. Please note that your waitlist number may increase or decrease as applications continue to be added.

Boston Pre-K community programs use a live waitlist system that considers the application submission date and time to determine placement. For applications submitted after March 21st, the waitlist order is based on submission date and time. If your waitlist number increases after you have been added to the waitlist, it means that a student with an earlier submission date was added ahead of you because their application has been officially verified by the Boston Pre-K team—it does not mean that another application was given priority over yours.

Applications are added to the waitlist on a rolling basis and throughout the school year and are manually processed by a member of the Boston Pre-K team. If your application is not immediately added to the waitlist, please be patient. However, if more than 14 days pass and your application has still not been added, please reach out to our office via email or via phone for support.

When the Boston Pre-K application opens to the general public in early January each year, families have a window before the initial lottery closes in mid-March to register in order to be included in the first lottery assignment. The application in Great Starts will require families to rank 5 sites by preference, with 1 being their highest choice.

Once an application has been submitted, families can change their ranked site selections by editing and re-submitting the existing application. However, if edits are made after the lottery has run, the newly selected programs will be assigned a new submission time. This means that adding another program will not affect the original timestamp of the sites initially listed.

Please note that the Boston Pre-K application is open for continuous enrollment throughout the school year, even if families do not apply during the window specified above. 

When a family accepts an offer, it immediately removes them from any other waitlists they were on. If a family decides to switch from one provider to another after accepting a seat, this will be considered as starting a new application, and the accepted seat will need to be forfeited or revoked. Consequently, they will be added to the end of the waitlist for the provider they are now requesting.

If you are no longer interested in a Boston Pre-K seat, you may log into your Great Starts account and decline all the offers and waitlists you were added to. Once you decline all your options, your application will be withdrawn. You can also contact the Boston Pre-K office to request support via phone at 617-635-1507 or email at bostonprek@bostonpublicschools.org.

No, Boston Pre-K programs do not have access to view your application or personal information in Great Starts. Programs only receive your information once you are officially offered a seat.

As you move through the enrollment process, please remember:

• If you receive an offer, you must accept it through Great Starts, even if you have verbally accepted the seat with the program.
• If you're having trouble accepting your placement, please contact our office for assistance.
• If you do not accept the offer within 14 calendar days, it will be automatically declined—regardless of any conversations you've had with the program.
• An offer is only considered accepted when the action is completed in Great Starts within the deadline.

No. As per the Department of Early Education and Care (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 voucher 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 program that offers Boston Pre-K means you are applying for their private or non-Boston Pre-K-funded seats, which may involve tuition or other fees. Submitting a Boston Pre-K application through Great Starts is for tuition-free seats funded by Boston Pre-K, guaranteeing 6.5 hours per day for 180 school days, and your child must meet the eligibility requirements.

No. However, Boston Pre-K has 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 community setting and a specific BPS school for K2, but instead provides Boston Pre-K families with a higher likelihood of being placed in certain schools for K2. To be considered for eligibility in the Boston Pre-K Connector System, families must register their child during the annual BPS K2 priority registration period. For questions about the Connector System, please contact the Boston Pre-K provider your child is currently enrolled in or reach out to the Boston Pre-K office at 617-635-1507 or via email at bostonprek@bostonpublicschools.org.

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.

Upon availability, children enrolled in Community-Based Organizations and Independent Schools can receive counseling, Occupational Therapy, or Speech and language services outlined in their IEP. If a child’s IEP outlines additional or more intensive special education services, the child may need to receive their services in a Boston Public Schools (BPS) setting.

As part of the application process and if a child’s IEP is available, it will be reviewed to ensure that the selected program can provide the services outlined in the IEP. If you have specific questions about a child’s eligibility or support needs, it’s best to connect with the Boston Pre-K Enrollment Team or the BPS Special Education Department for guidance.

No. At this time, children with an IEP cannot enroll in a Family Child Care (FCC) provider through Boston Pre-K. If a child has an IEP, they should be placed in a community-based organization or BPS school which can provide the services outlined in the child’s IEP.

Priority Registration occurs between November and December, prior to the Boston Pre-K application opening to the general public in early January. During this period, children currently enrolled at a Boston Pre-K community provider who wish to stay at their current site are given priority for Boston Pre-K seats for the following school year, supporting their continued growth and success. 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.

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 Boston Pre-K seat) and are aging into a 3-year-old or 4-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. 

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

Please note that programs can use their best judgment to decide who qualifies for priority registration. This may depend on things like their current student population, feeder classrooms, available funding, and student need.

No, Priority Registration does not guarantee a seat. It allows eligible children to register before the general application opens on January 6 based on the priority registration criteria listed above. 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 applies only to the program your child currently attends and is limited to students already enrolled at a partner community setting. If you wish to apply to a different program, you will need to go through the general application process, which opens annually in early January. Additionally, you must agree to forfeit your priority seat at the program where your child was originally registered.

For the 2025-2026 school year, the only priority for Boston Pre-K in community settings is for students who are currently enrolled in the program. 

Certain Boston Pre-K programs have mission-driven enrollment, designed to meet the unique needs of certain groups of children through federal and state grants. Families who apply to these programs may need to undergo additional screenings to determine if they meet the program's eligibility criteria. For more information, please refer to the "Additional Considerations" section on our Apply page.

We are committed to continually refining our policies and practices to ensure that families who could benefit from additional priorities—such as siblings, special education, and English language learners, low income status—are considered fairly in this process. Our ongoing efforts include assessing ways to support vulnerable subpopulations and ensuring that our admissions process remains equitable and inclusive.