Diverse Delivery: Pre-K Through Child Care and Head Start
In Louisiana, the LA 4 pre-k program can be offered in Class A licensed centers that have a three “working on four” star rating. (For more information on the star ratings of the Louisiana Quality Start program for child care centers go to www.qrslouisiana.org.) However, very few school systems have LA 4 classrooms outside of their school buildings. By contrast, across the country, most states are building and expanding early education systems through diverse delivery to make pre-k available to more children and to give parents more high quality choices in their local communities.
A “diverse delivery system,” which offers publicly funded pre-k in community settings, including child care centers and Head Start programs, has been central to building strong pre-k systems in many states. Successful systems:
- Expand overall pre-k access;
- Allow parents to choose an appropriate environment for their children;
- Work collaboratively with established providers in their own communities;
- Promote quality and accountability across settings.
Two examples of states that have used a specific percentage of community participation to ensure diverse delivery are New York and West Virginia. In New York, pre-k legislation passed in 1997 mandated that at least 10 percent of the pre-k capacity be in non-public school settings. By 2004, nearly 60 percent of the children were served in non-school settings, including child care centers, Head Start programs, preschool special education, and private and parochial schools. This approach has enhanced the relationship between schools and the community-based settings, smoothing the transition to kindergarten. In 2002, West Virginia passed legislation providing that all four year old children in West Virginia have access to pre-k within ten years. Furthermore, their regulations provide that by fall 2012, at least half of all pre-k classrooms must be located in community-based settings, including child care, preschool or Head Start programs. All providers must meet the same quality standards.
Challenges of Diverse Delivery of Pre-K
Challenges in creating successful partnerships between child care, Head Start and state pre-k programs are caused by disparate regulations and standards and various funding sources.
Policymakers and community leaders in most states have developed innovative partnerships between state-funded pre-k, child care and Head Start, addressing issues that include inconsistent teacher-qualification requirements, teacher-child ratios, different eligibility standards and child assessments, the wide range in the availability of comprehensive services, and challenges of securing adequate program space. Most states have tried to use the highest standard for the pre-k standard — such as the bachelor’s degree requirement from schools and the class size requirement from Head Start. Successful collaboration between state pre-k, child care and Head Start benefits all the programs and is critical to expanding pre-k.
Advantages of a Diverse Delivery System
Collaborations to date have allowed partners to:
- Use existing facilities and save capital and start-up expenses;
- Open classrooms to more children;
- Provide comprehensive services to more children;
- Require higher teacher qualifications and provide the same salaries earned by kindergarten teachers;
- Merge existing funding and technical assistance resources;
- Establish linkages between service providers and special education resources;
- Provide higher-quality programs and comprehensive services to parents; and
- Expand the program time to full-day and/or full-year.
There are many ways that the community participation can work:
- Public schools can place degreed teachers employed by the school system in the community setting;
- Public schools can pay for the service which includes a qualified teacher;
- Public schools can rent space from the child care center or Head Start program;
- Many other options or combination of options can be designed.
Collaboration between state pre-k, child care and Head Start is a best practice on the rise in states across the country. The current rapid growth in state pre-k makes such partnerships valuable for all partners. Working together to develop a seamless system of coordinated programs results in success for all the programs with significant benefits for parents and their young children.
For additional resource materials addressing the subject of a diverse delivery system for pre-k see:
- A Center Piece of the PreK Puzzle: Providing State Prekindergarten in Child Care Centers
- Partnering for Preschool: A Study of Center Directors in New Jersey’s Mixed-Delivery Abbott Program
- Better Outcomes for All: Promoting Partnerships Between Head Start and State Pre-K
- A Diverse System Delivers for Pre-K: Lessons Learned in New York State