NYC Opens First City-Run Early Childhood Center On The Upper East Side

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the opening of the city’s first standalone, city-run early childhood education center at 403 E. 65th St., expanding pre-K and 3-K capacity on the Upper East Side.

The center will serve 72 four-year-olds in pre-K and 63 three-year-olds in 3-K, and more than doubles pre-K capacity and quadruples 3-K capacity within the neighborhood, according to city officials.

“We are going to make this a city where parents are no longer forced between the choice of raising a family and staying in the city that they love,” Mamdani said.

He directed families to apply online or through the Department of Education enrollment hotline by calling 311. He added that families who have already submitted applications can revise their preferences to include the new center.

More than 50,000 families citywide have already applied for 3-K or pre-K seats, Mamdani said.

City Council Speaker Julie Menin said the facility had been completed since July, but had not opened.

“Parents would walk by, and wouldn’t understand why it was not open,” Menin said. “This is an incredible day for the East Side and for the city as a whole.”

Menin said 853 child care facilities have closed citywide in recent years even as demand increased. She referenced a 2022 City Council legislative package aimed at expanding child care capacity, including tax abatements and a subsidy portal.

Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal said the city has lost 110,000 children under age 5 over the past decade as families moved to suburbs and other states.

“We need to keep families here on the East Side and throughout Manhattan,” he said. “Facilities like this will help achieve that goal.”

The center includes classroom space and a commercial kitchen. It marks the first in a broader push to expand access to early childhood education across the five boroughs, according to city officials.