Parents, their children and educators held a rally at City Hall Wednesday to protest the city's decision to eliminate 31 pre-k seats at the Zeta Charter School in the South Bronx.

The impacted families claim that the Department of Education will split up their kids.

Demonstrators held signs that read "kids together" and "one school one family." They demanded that the DOE reconsider its decision to deny pre-k seats to 31 families at the school.

Teachers, parents and students said the DOE's decision to deny younger students a seat at their older sibling's school will split up families and make it unnecessarily hard on working parents.

The parents at the rally said getting admitted to the charter school is like winning the lottery because their older kids have done so well at Zeta.

The DOE released a statement on the issue that reads, "Through our universal Pre-K program every family has access to the high-quality early childhood learning opportunities their children deserve. Seat increase decisions are designed to be a fair and equitable process, and there are currently ample available Pre-K seats in this community to meet demand."

The DOE told News 12 that it came to its decision by a careful analysis of the community's demand for pre-k seats and found that the school community had enough pre-k seats to meet demand. Demonstrators, however, disagree with that decision.