GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

Parents rushing to find spots for their children in city schools at the eleventh hour can expect to confront a thick bureaucracy, strict paperwork requirements, and long waits.

On a recent afternoon at a Department of Education enrollment center in Manhattan, the waiting room was crowded with harried parents juggling toddlers or trying to squeeze an enrollment consultation into a lunch break; large families of recent immigrants from China, the Dominican Republic, and Bosnia; and students seeking to reenroll after leaving the system.

Khemenec Pantin, the receptionist, is patient with all of them. “You need two proofs of address and a passport or birth certificate,” he rattles off in one breath as families approach his desk.

“It’s this busy every year,” Jimmy Bueschen, an enrollment coordinator, said as he bounced between the fax machine and a row of parents waiting to receive paperwork instructions. “This year is no different. Some parents are reasonable, and some aren’t.”

In his 15 years working in enrollment for the DOE, Bueschen said he is accustomed to hearing profanities and sighs from frustrated parents. Earlier this week, he said the worst was still to come.

“Next week, we’ll have a huge volume,” he said.

That’s when families will flood temporary registration centers that the department opens in the days before school starts. The 12 temporary enrollment centers across the five boroughs can expect to see between 100 and 500 students per day, according to DOE officials. (more…)