The winter season coincides with an increase in viruses and other illnesses within school communities. Please review Health Guidance and Resources for Families. In addition, if a student becomes ill during the school day, the school nurse will determine, based on the student’s symptoms and the nurse’s professional clinical judgement, if the student needs to go home. School nurses will work with school administrators and supervisors to ensure that students who are not well enough to stay in school are not sent back to class.  

As of the 2023–24 school year, all NYC Public School kindergarten, first grade, and second grade students are eligible to join the Save for College Program and receive an initial allocation of $100 in an NYC Scholarship Account. All schools with kindergarten, first, and/or second grade classes are required to ensure kindergarten, first grade, and second grade families are aware of the program. Share the Introductory Video(Open external link), Program Basics(Open external link), and Program FAQ(Open external link) with kindergarten and new first grade and second grade families as a part of the launch of the school year. New first grade and second grade families include those students who enrolled in your school after April 1, 2023.

Parents/guardians have the opportunity to opt out of receiving an NYC Scholarship Account. The opt-out date may differ between students and is based on when the student was enrolled in school. 

For the 2023-2024 school year, the Initial Opt-out Period begins on November 1 and ends on November 30, and applies to all kindergarten students and any first or second grade students who enrolled in your school after April 1st, 2023. If a family opts out, they will not receive an NYC Scholarship Account, they will not receive the initial $100 allocation, and their student’s data will not be shared with NYC Kids RISE and the technology vendor VistaShare. 

Parents/guardians who want to participate in the Program simply take NO ACTION during the Opt-out Period.

During their 30-day opt-out period, parents/guardians who wish to change their child’s participation status by opting-out have two options:

1. Parents/guardians can change their child’s participation status within the NYC Schools Account(Open external link) (NYCSA). This is the recommended way for parents to opt out, re-enroll or cancel. After logging in to NYCSA, the parent/guardian should look at the main screen with all of the tiles. The parent/guardian can click on the “Forms'' tile, then click on the "view" button on the next page near “NYC Kids RISE Save for College Program.” After this they can review program information and will have relevant options available towards the bottom of the page.
2. Parents/guardians can return a signed opt-out form to their child’s school for data entry into ATS within a defined 30-day period.