Enrollment Process
Jowonio has welcomed students in Central New York with a wide range of abilities and needs for all of our programs for over 50 years. We are fortunate to have long-standing relationships with many local families and providers, and we appreciate the continued interest in our programs. As a result, we often experience a high level of interest in enrollment at Jowonio. To serve as many students as possible, we maintain interest lists for our programs. If you are interested in enrolling at Jowonio, the first step is to add your child’s name to an interest list.
We maintain two separate interest lists:
- One for children whose school district Committee on Preschool Special Education (CPSE) has determined qualify for a Special Class Inclusive Setting (SCIS), and
- One for peers who do not require special education services.
Once you add your child’s name to the relevant list, you will be in line to be contacted to visit Jowonio for a tour. This is an important part of the process. We tour all families to make sure we have an opportunity to meet your children, even if your family is already familiar with our program. This process provides you with the opportunity to observe our current classroom styles and consider the full range of program options, while also allowing us to gain insight into your child and determine the best classroom match
Enrollment Timeline
While we have rare mid-year openings, children typically start at Jowonio at the beginning of a new school year in September. Touring for September placements typically begins in the spring, once we have a sense of how many returning children we will have as well as how many openings there will be. If we are approaching your child’s name on our interest list, you will be contacted to schedule a tour.

Placement Information
We consider several factors when placing children to ensure that we can create balanced classrooms that meet the needs of all those enrolled.
Your child is considered for placement based on the date they were first added to our interest list or when they qualified through their school district for the special services we offer. However, we reserve the right to prioritize children of staff members and siblings of children who are currently attending our program and will be concurrently enrolled.
When we can confirm that we have an available opening for your child, you will be given a link to a registration packet to complete.
Syracuse City School District Enrollment
If your child will be 3- or 4-years old on or before December 1st of the year they start in September, and you reside in the Syracuse City School District (SCSD), their tuition may be paid by the school district’s Universal pre-K program (UPK). Please note that there is additional registration paperwork to complete for SCSD in addition to Jowonio’s registration packet.