P.S. 911

When applying to private nursery school or kindergarten, it’s possible that you may not receive a single “yes”—but that doesn’t mean you’re completely sunk. Far from it, in fact. Gather your wits and follow these tips:

Remind yourself that it’s not your fault. There’s no need to bug out. Schools have to be extremely careful not to over-enroll, which is why wait lists and rejections have become increasingly common, says Cynthia Bing of the Parents League. “In fact, a city inspector caught a place a few years back that was just one child over the square-footage limit, and the school was forced to redo the space.”

Contact your first choice. Call immediately to say you haven’t received any acceptances; ask how often you should follow up and how likely it is that children will move off the wait list and into a spot in the class that fall. (Schools pay attention to the families that call, and if you don’t, they’ll assume you have a place elsewhere or are not interested.)

Get ahold of your preschool adviser. She can find out whether the school has a “problem” that year. For example, your first pick could be faced with a boy-heavy class, which means no dice for your Daniel. Or it may have too many young girls and yours has an August birthday.

Look to the summer. “There’s a huge second round of admissions in June and July,” reports Amanda Uhry at Manhattan Private School Advisors. Places do free up (parents change jobs, get transferred to Hong Kong or decamp to the suburbs), so be in touch with the school and the Parents League, which often hears about openings.

Reapply. Depending on your child’s age, you may want to think about trying again next year. Boys with birthdays in summer and early fall have the toughest time, so let the school know that you’re willing to be flexible. He may have a better shot next year as an older K applicant.

Give up the “perfect school” dream. Be it Brick, Grace or another place, you know full well that not every tot can paint at the same easel. Do yourself a favor and contact some of the newer—and equally good—pre-Ks, like Claremont, the Ideal School and the JCC in Manhattan. Remember, it’s your child’s happiness that’s important, not the name or reputation of the school he’s in.

Just skip it. You could simply opt out, as Kim Testa, a mom in Chelsea, did. “When Victoria didn’t get into the nursery school we wanted, I signed her up for music and art classes instead,” she explains. Then Testa reapplied to the same place for kindergarten, and her daughter was admitted. “Ultimately, it didn’t matter that she wasn’t in preschool, because she learned to socialize anyway, and had a great time doing it.”