Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said she plans to expand an initiative that provides BPS students with free access to six cultural institutions to all city schoolchildren at the beginning of 2025, ending a policy slammed by critics as exclusionary.

Wu made her announcement Tuesday on GBH’s Boston Public Radio, two days after sharing at a Franklin Park Zoo press conference that she was extending the BPS Sundays pilot as it exists today by four months, through the end of 2024.

“That will run in its current form through the end of the year, just to make sure that there’s no gap in access for BPS students,” Wu said. “We are very close, kind of in the final stages of nailing down an agreement that would expand it to all school-aged children throughout Boston.”

The expanded program, presumably one that would have a different name, is “planned to kick off in the beginning of 2025,” Wu said, explaining that there are details the city and participating cultural institutions still have to finalize.

“It would be a similar access program, and we want to make sure that every young person in our city grows up having the chance to spark curiosity and wonder and to have fun, too,” Wu said.

BPS Sundays, a mayoral initiative, kicked off last February as an eight-month pilot program initially set to last through the end of August. The program, in its current form, allows Boston Public Schools students and up to three family members free access to six cultural institutions on the first and second Sunday of each month.

The program has proven to be popular, drawing 36,000 students and family members to the participating institutions including the Franklin Park Zoo, Boston Children’s Museum, Institute of Contemporary Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Museum of Science and New England Aquarium, according to the mayor’s office.

Limits on eligibility for the program have drawn frequent criticism, however, particularly from Councilors Ed Flynn and Erin Murphy, who have been pushing for the program to include all city kids since it was announced in the mayor’s State of the City address last January.

Flynn and Murphy criticized the initiative for excluding thousands of low-income and minority families — such as those who have children attending charter and private schools or who take part in the METCO program — who may not be able to afford the cost of a museum visit.

Flynn, in a Tuesday statement to the Herald, called the mayor’s expansion plan “a win for every Boston family.”

“I am thankful the program will be expanded to include tens of thousands of children — those in private schools, charter schools, and thousands of students of color,” Flynn said. “This is a win for every Boston family who will now have the wonderful opportunity to enjoy our exceptional museums and cultural institutions.”

Murphy, an at-large councilor, also expressed her appreciation for the mayor’s decision, saying in a statement that it is a “positive step toward greater inclusivity and equity for our city’s diverse student population.”

She noted, however, that she did not hear directly from the mayor’s office about the expansion, but rather learned about it through the media, despite her months of advocacy for the “inclusion of all families.”

Given her outstanding questions about what it will entail, Murphy still plans to introduce a hearing order on the program at Wednesday’s City Council meeting.

A City Council hearing, Murphy said, “will allow us to fully understand the implementation plan and address any outstanding questions or concerns.”

“I remain committed to working with the mayor and my colleagues to ensure that this expanded access is implemented effectively and reaches every eligible child in our city,” the councilor added.

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The mayor chose not to share her expansion plan at last Sunday’s zoo event, despite being asked specifically by a Herald reporter whether opening up the program to all city schoolchildren was under consideration or planned, choosing instead to break the news on a pre-scheduled monthly radio appearance.

On Sunday, Wu told reporters that such a decision was dependent on whether the funding was available to expand the program to all children, citing the financial struggles that have hampered the city’s cultural institutions since the pandemic.

The roughly $1 million public-private program has been funded by a mix of ARPA pandemic recovery funds, corporate and philanthropic money, as well as support from the city’s cultural institution partners, a city spokesperson said, adding that the provided cost reflects the four-month extension.

“It’s been a dream and a goal from the very beginning,” Wu said last Sunday, “to make sure this is actually reachable for everyone.”

Jamaica Plain’s Ophelia Markle, 6, offers a dandelion to a butterfly in the Butterfly Hollow exhibit at Franklin Park Zoo during a BPS Sundays event this past weekend. (Libby O’Neill/Boston Herald)