Monday, March 14th 2011, 1:13 PM

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Did a Manhattan preschool fail to adequately prepare a four-year-old girl for Harvard? The girl's mom charges that the York Avenue Preschool hurt her child's chances in a lawsuit filed Monday.

A Manhattan mom is suing a $19,000-a-year preschool, claiming it jeopardized her daughter's chances of getting into an elite private school because she had to slum with younger kids.

Court papers filed by Nicole Imprescia suggest the York Avenue Preschool may have doomed 4-year-old Lucia's chances of getting into an Ivy League college.

"At age four, [York Avenue Preschool] was still teaching [Imprescia's] daughter about shapes and colors - a two year old's learning environment," the suit says.

"Like many parents living in Manhattan, [Imprescia] places a priority on her child's preschool education," the papers add.

The suit quotes from an article that identifies elite preschools as the first step for getting children into the best schools "and on to the Ivy League."

An impressive sales pitch from the York Ave. school in the fall of 2009 convinced Imprescia to enroll Lucia - and pay $19,000 up front.

The goal, the suit says, was to prepare Lucia for the ERB standardized test - which the top private elementary schools use in making admission decisions.

"[York Avenue Preschool] boasted to [Imprescia] that it had a high success rate in getting its students into high caliber schools, both public and private," the suit says.

Those claims are "a complete fraud," the mom charges, going on to blast the York Avenue's educational environment and lack of age-specific classrooms.

"Indeed, the school proved not to be a school at all, but just one big playroom," the suit says.

The school's owner, Michael Branciforte, did not return a call seeking comment.

On its website, York Avenue Preschool touts its music and physical education programs, weekly library trips and French classes for four-year-olds.

"Our goal is to reach each child and work with them towards their 'next steps,'" the site says.

Imprescia is seeking a $19,000 tuition refund and wants to launch a class-action case on behalf of similarly wronged toddlers.

Imprescia and her lawyer declined comment.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/03/14/2011-03-14_manhattan_mom_sues_19kyr_preschool_for_damaging_4yearold_daughters_ivy_league_ch.html#ixzz1Gb7voemq