Unlike kindergarten, public pre-kindergarten programs are not mandated by New York State so admissions are very limited and often by lottery. The program at PS 321 is very small (only one full day class and two half-day progarms) Still the acceptance rate hit a new low this year according to the NY Post:

…the acceptance rate at some schools hit record lows — with PS 321 in Brooklyn’s Park Slope at a jaw-dropping 2.5 percent. Ivy League Harvard accepted 6.9 percent of its applicants this year.

“This is such a great program, and I really hoped he would have gotten in,” said Mary Thaman, whose son was not among the 12 lucky tots — out of 475 applicants — to land spots at PS 321.

“We’re scrambling to see if we can find someplace else for him,” she added.

Families who snagged seats at the well-regarded school — which, like all of the programs, gives priority to kids who rank it as their top choice and have siblings attending the school — were shocked by their good fortune.

“It was just disbelief when we heard the news,” said David Criste, whose 3-year-old son, Neal, got into PS 321 with the aid of his older brother, a first-grader there.

“We decided to play Powerball the next day, just in case we were on a lucky streak,” Criste said. “But we weren’t that lucky.”

Among the 25,000 applicants for public-school pre-K slots, more than 18,000 got offers from at least one program, Department of Education data show. As for the 7,000 families that were shut out, they’ll get a new shot next month — when a second round of applications gets under way.