I am looking for a pre-school for my daughter to go to next school year. I want her to go 2 half days a week and am starting to look at places so we can reserve a spot now. I have NO idea what kind of price I should be looking at. One place so far told me $279 a month for mornings and $249 for afternoons. Is this a good price or is it really expensive? Please take into account that I live in Monmouth county, NJ where EVERYTHING is expensive. I just don't want to get ripped off. Should I lok for a place that charges less for children who are potty trained? (we are not yet but I am hoping once she sees the schools she will have an incentive to start going) Any advise as to what to look for and what questions I should ask would be apreciated.
This doesn't sound excessively expensive for a nice suburb. I live a half hour or so north of Westchester and preschools there probably cost about the same. It it works out to about $25 per half day, I'd think it was appropriately priced.
Hi M.,
I'm in NY so I feel your pain!
I found that small church-run preschools are often cheapest. Other non church run (and some church run) sites are in the $250 range. Montesori is about $350.
I'd say 250 a month for 2 1/2 days is about right.
Have you looked around at a few? I'd suggest doing so. One will pop out at you as "the place." And if it's not, you can always switch during the choll year.
Good luck!
Hi, I live in Jackson. I looked all over for preschools for my son last year. I think that in this area- I looked in Jackson, Howell, Freehold and Manalapan- $260 ish is good. I put my son in KinderCare and that was $95/week- for 2 half days- so that was clearly more expensive, but that was just for the summer. Where I have him now is $255/mo, but thats for 3 mornings.
So to answer your question- $279 is reasonable.
Believe me, you get what you pay for! My son is in full time in northern NJ so I don't know what the price should be for part-time, but I made the mistake when he was 2 1/2 of moving him to the least expensive (but still professional) place I could find as we were on a very tight budget. The classes were huge, run mostly by teaching assistants who I think loved the children but spoke in ungrammatical English (which he then brought home with him), had the kids watch TV and play on the computer, and generally didn't know what they were doing. He stayed there longer than I would have liked but we bit the bullet and decided to pay more for a better school. The price of pre-k really hurts but I believe that their brains are developing so fast that you might need to pay more to get what you want. See if you can bring your daughter for an hour to the schools you are considering and watch how the children act and what the teachers do.
