NEW YORK, NY October 07, 2008 —The city still has 6,000 of its 58,000 seats available in its pre-K programs, and wants parents to sign their kids up by the October 31 deadline. The seats are open to children who turn four by year's end. Schools Chancellor Joel Klein says pre-K education is critical to later academic success.

KLEIN: People ask me, what are we going to do about dropouts? What you do about dropouts is you start early. So I'm urging our parents to get their kids involved at the earliest time.

REPORTER: Klein adds that the Department of Education has been pushing for more full-day pre-K seats, which work better for many parents' schedules. To find out if pre-K seats are available in your neighborhood, call 3-1-1 or go online at NYC.gov.