NYC Mom Sues Preschool: Not Ivy League Enough

By Stephanie Rabiner, Esq. on March 16, 2011 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

Blair and Serena didn't make it into the Ivy League without first attending a top-notch preschool.

Okay, fine. We don't know where the Gossip Girl characters first attended school, but we do know that to some parents, an Ivy League education is a matter of life and death.

And this, of course, is why it's not surprising to hear that Nicole Imprescia, a Manhatan mother, is suing York Avenue Preschool for ruining her daughter's chances at the Ivy League.

The girl is only four.

To get into an Ivy League college, you must attend an elite New York prep school. And to do that, you must attend an elite preschool. This is why, the Daily News explains, Nicole Imprescia enrolled her daughter in York Avenue Preschool at the age of three.

The school, which costs $19,000 a year, boasts a curriculum that includes music and French, reports the Daily News. Its purpose is to help four year olds pass the E.R.B.--an admissions test used by private schools.

Nicole Imprescia claims that the school didn't live up to her expectations, reports the paper. A month into her daughter's second year, she left York after the administration refused to remove the girl from a class with two year olds. Instead of French, she was learning shapes and colors.

Imprescia is now asking for a refund, punitive damages and attorney's fees.

In all fairness, if the school advertised an age-specific curriculum, then it was most likely contractually bound to follow those guidelines as closely as possible. This does not mean that Imprescia is entitled to more than a refund.

No one knows whether the daughter took the E.R.B., according to The New York Times. Regardless, courts don't generally award speculative damages--especially when there isn't proof of causation. If Nicole Imprescia's daughter did poorly, it may not be the fault of York Avenue Preschool. And if she did well, it was never definite that she'd make her way into the Ivy League in the first place. This means that punitives are probably out.

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