The de Blasio administration managed to boost enrollment in after-school programs for middle-schoolers this year — but still fell short of its lofty goals, a Post review found.
On Wednesday, the Mayor’s Office boasted that enrollment had reached “121 percent” for the 75,000 city-funded after-school seats available, but atypically didn’t hold a press conference to tout the achievement.
It turns out the 91,204 enrollment figure doesn’t meet any earlier targets announced by the administration, like the nearly 120,000-seat goal in a March 2014 press release and white paper.
After the state failed to provide the full funding sought by the administration, the city quietly stretched the one-year effort to two years, while amending this year’s goal to 107,000. More recently, de Blasio reduced the enrollment target even further, putting it at “almost 100,000.”
Department of Youth and Community Development officials say comparing the figures is unfair — like comparing apples and oranges — and say the city is planning to enroll more students at 2,500 non-public-school sites that were announced this week.
They said when 5,000 seats are added in September, they expect to hit an enrollment of roughly 105,000 middle-schoolers in after-school programs.



