Oh, dear, you ve gotten some bad advice so far.I am a NYC public school teacher - have been for over 20 years. Not only that, I used to teach kindergarten. In NY State, kindergarten is not mandated. But the City of NY is obligated to find a seat in a public school for any child applying to kindergarten. So, a child does not HAVE to attend kindergarten by law, but can not be shut out of the process. The reason you hear about people registering early is that children CAN be shut out of a particular school. However, this is very rare these days. In the 1990s, the City frequently could not guarantee a seat for every child at their home school. Today, this is relatively rare. Moreover, registration in kindergarten has changed, so that you apply to the CITY for a seat in kindergarten, ranking the preferred schools (with your home school being pretty much guaranteed if you put it first,) as opposed to what used to happen - in the old days, you applied directly to the individual school. The new system is more the way children are placed throughout the school system, with the idea of ranking schools by preference and allowing the Dept. of Education to decide if there is room in your top ranked schools. The only elementary school grade in which you are really NOT guaranteed a spot in your zoned school is Pre-K. (Perhaps that s what one of the other people answering the question was thinking of???) Pre-K is not strictly speaking an elementary school grade. It s actually something different, but the Pre-Ks are housed in elementary schools (mostly, some are housed in day cares.)But Kindergarten IS considered an elementary grade, and as such IS a grade where you can pretty much be assured a spot in your zoned school. When this became a problem this year due to budget cuts, parents were up in arms! It s so much considered a guarantee! The City finally had to shuffle money (and students) around in one popular school in the Village, to provide each Kindergartner who was zoned in the catchment area a seat in their zoned school. Now, even though Kindergarten is NOT mandated, it is STRONGLY recommended! As someone who has taught both kindergarten and first grade, I can tell you that a child is put at a serious disadvantage if he or she does not attend kindergarten.Hope this answers your question.
Public school kindergarten is free. However depending in population density in any given neighborhood it may not be easy to obtain. It may require very early enrollment or enrollment out of your immediate area.Private school kindergarten is of course available at several price points with the least expensive being parochial schools and the most expensive being as much as state collegtuition sns.
If I were you I would check with the Department of Education to get an accurate answer.