By Andrea Gutierrez for The Providence Eye.

Broadcast version by Kathryn Carley for New England News Service reporting for the Solutions Journalism Network-Public News Service Collaboration

It’s two months into the school year and Dina Quezada’s 4-year–old daughter is finally getting used to waking up an hour earlier. She knows many of the children in her class and is familiar with the routines from last year, when she was a 3-year–old pre-schooler at Beautiful Beginnings Child Care Center, but getting her up earlier is still a bit of a challenge.

Quezada is not complaining. She feels lucky to have won the lottery spot that got her daughter a Pre-K seat. Without it, she might have to spend over $1,000 a month to keep her daughter in school while she remains active in her volunteer work.

Other Providence families aren’t as lucky. Current enrollment figures won’t be released until January, but the most recent data on the Rhode Island Department of Education website showed that only 23% of 4-year-olds in Providence had access to the state-funded RI pre-K program. Applications that same year were 57% more than the number of seats available, and that’s an improvement over previous years. From 2017 to 2021 applications were at least double the number of seats offered. There have not been enough seats to provide every 4-year-old in the city access to the state-funded Pre-K program for the past eight years—-which makes the ideal of universal Pre-K in Rhode Island feel very far off, advocates say.

More money needed

“Ideally, they would all be accepted, but there is not enough funding,” said Leanne Barrett, the director of early childhood policy and strategy at Rhode Island Kids Count. The National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University estimated that Rhode Island is underfunding their pre-K program by about $6k per child. The state would need approximately $14 million in additional funding to resolve the current deficit.

Currently in its 17th year, RI pre-K programs offer six hours of free, high-quality early childhood education to enhance social and emotional skills in children in preparation for kindergarten. The program, managed by RIDE, serves residents of 20 participating communities across Rhode Island, including Providence.

The annual state budget determines the amount of funding allocated for early childhood education, and RIDE determines the amount of funding provided to each participating program and the number of seats funded at each location. Each pre-K classroom has about 18-20 students. Smaller class sizes are one of the 10 quality standards that RI pre-K classrooms uphold. To ensure quality, the state conducts site visits with national observation tools, and provides coaching to improve teaching practices. Also, teachers for RI pre-K must hold a Bachelor’s degree and a specialization in early childhood education.

The national data out of Rutgers shows varied progress toward universal pre-K in the country. Georgia was the first state to establish universal pre-K in 1995, and they are joined by Florida, Oklahoma, Vermont and the District of Columbia as the only places in the country to have universal pre-K programs. Several more states are making progress toward or currently implementing universal pre-K, while others, like Rhode Island, are moving more slowly toward this goal. RIDE was unable to be reached for comment about their plans for expanding the program, but the state has put forth a proposal to invest $2.1 million ”to preserve and expand access” to free high-quality programs, including RI pre-K and Head Start.

Winning the State-Funded Lottery

Enrollment for RI pre-K relies on a lottery system, open to all residents in participating communities. On the RIDE application, applicants are able to choose up to three participating schools of interest in their community.

Beautiful Beginnings, where Quezada’s daughter was admitted, runs two pre-K classrooms. Initially, Quezada’s daughter was waitlisted and gained enrollment just a few days into the school year. Had she not been accepted, she would have enrolled in daycare part time, and she would stay home on the days she wasn’t at daycare. The family arranged in-home childcare for Quezada’s older daughter part time during the pandemic after she had exhausted her parental leave in her previous role working for the federal government.

The 2024 enrollment records from RI Kids Count estimated about 740 seats for RI pre-K in Providence. The same data tells a story of economic hardship in Providence, with almost 90% of students enrolled in RI pre-K that year from low-income families. There is no income cap for RI pre-K, but the lottery is stratified in an effort to align with the economic demographics of the city.

“It makes the biggest difference for low income families,” said Barrett, whose organization compiles an annual Factbook with data about the well-being of children in the state. She said that participation in free or reduced lunch programs is a proxy for low-income families, and in 2024 the Factbook reported 64% of children in Providence were participating in a lunch program.

An added benefit for families with children enrolled in RI pre-K is strict adherence to quality standards. Federally funded Head Start programs adhere to their own standards, but that program is currently under threat due to the federal government shutdown. Like RI pre-K, Head Start programs are free, but there is an income cap, and applicants must be below the federal poverty level to be eligible. Providence families ineligible for Head Start who do not win the pre-K lottery can seek private care or choose from other preschool classrooms in the city of varying quality, but many struggle to pay the cost.

Progress and Impact

Last year, RIDE collaborated with national experts to develop a renewed, comprehensive, evidence-based review process for early learning curriculum. The multi-tiered process is used to select curricula for RI pre-K programs and other early childhood programs across the state. Teachers are required to share students’ development and learning data back with the state to establish success metrics.

“It hits on every learning domain,” said Jody Bernard, director of early learning at the Genesis Center, which runs four RI pre-K classrooms in Providence. In addition to enhancing social-emotional skills, she emphasized the importance of community and teaching the kids how to ask for help.

“You have to connect the families because you never know when you might need each other,” said Bernard.

The impact is evident for families like the Quezadas.

”The only place she was learning English was at daycare—at home we speak Portuguese and Spanish,” she said of her daughter. The 4-year-old’s English has improved a lot after spending every day for two years at Beautiful Beginnings. She credits an engaged teacher that pushes resources out to families for the accelerated pace of her daughter’s English language skills.

“It pushes us to practice with her at home,” said a grateful Quezada, who seems keenly aware of how the benefit offered to her daughter naturally extends to her entire family.

Andrea Gutierrez wrote this article for The Providence Eye.

Source: Public News Service