The four dates that actually matter
Every Delhi nursery admissions cycle has a Directorate-published schedule. The four dates you need to track are: form availability, last submission date, first list, and second list. Everything else (open houses, sibling-priority cutoffs) is school-specific.
Form availability
Schools open admission forms after the Directorate of Education releases the official schedule, usually in the last week of November. Most schools publish forms online; a handful still collect physical applications.
Submission deadline
Forms are typically due in the third week of December. Late submissions are rarely accepted — the points-based system runs on a fixed dataset and adding entries after the cutoff would skew the rankings.
First list
The first list usually drops the second week of January. Schools post selected names on their notice boards and (increasingly) on the school website. If your child's name is on it, the school will follow up with a fee schedule and admission interview slot.
Second list
Released roughly two weeks later. This list fills the seats vacated when first-list selectees do not take admission. If you are on a waitlist, second-list activity is where you will see movement.
What changed for 2026-27
- The 25% EWS quota under the Right to Education Act continues to be administered separately by the DoE — not by individual schools.
- Sibling priority and alumni quotas remain school-specific. Most private schools allocate 20-50 points to sibling status on their points sheet.
- Distance-from-home points cap-ban: a 2019 court order eliminated minimum-distance criteria, but distance-tier point bands are still legal and widely used.
One unsolicited piece of advice
Apply to between five and eight schools. Less than five and you have no fallback if early lists go against you; more than eight and you will be juggling overlapping interview slots in a tight first-list window.
