It’s nice to see a bit of good news on the children-and-families front during these days of dire budget forecasts and shattering gun violence involving young people. So, huzzah to the Seattle Preschool Program, and the city officials behind it, for seeing fit to expand this well-regarded effort to get kids off to a strong start.
Beginning next month, many of Seattle’s 105 city-funded preschools will serve more children for more hours. Thirty-three sites will extend their calendars beyond the school year, offering early learning to 3- and 4-year-olds for 10 hours a day, year-round. Another 24 providers will operate on a six-hour day, year-round. (Until now, all sites have offered slots only for six hours, and only during the school year.)
The expansion should be welcome news to working parents, highlighting an underrecognized benefit to subsidized early learning: It’s good not only for kids, but their families too, allowing more moms and dads to enter the workforce instead of staying home to provide childcare. In that sense, early learning can be viewed as a tool for economic development.
The Seattle Preschool Program, which charges tuition on a sliding scale, started small, with just 283 kids in 2015. By this summer, the head count was nearly 10 times larger, with more than 2,500 children learning how to learn. And now, with the longer hours and extended calendar, the program forecasts serving 3,100 youngsters by the 2031-32 school year. Going forward, the city plans to study the feasibility of extending universal preschool to all Seattle kids.
This is what was pledged in 2025, when Seattle’s Department of Education and Early Learning asked voters to approve a massive $1.3 billion Families, Education Preschool & Promise levy for six years of beefed-up services, covering everything from preschool to college for Seattle youth. A big chunk of it — $391.7 million — will go toward increasing the Seattle Preschool Program, which now reports a 100% enrollment “utilization rate.” Good on them for sticking to the plan.
However, academic outcomes still have a ways to go.
Overall, more children citywide are starting kindergarten “ready to learn,” according to assessments that measure kids’ social-emotional maturity, physical abilities, cognitive strength, language, literacy and math skills.
But not all of them attended the Seattle Preschool Program. Among those kids, the results are mixed. More Black children were deemed “ready to learn” after attending the city’s program, compared with their peers. Yet among other ethnic groups, school-readiness rates have zigzagged up and down.
The city’s response to this perplexing pattern is encouraging: Rather than barreling ahead, the preschool program is increasing gradually and will start setting performance targets next year. In tandem, Seattle Public Schools is testing third graders who attended the program to ensure their gains are maintained. Any school that gets money from the levy will be expected to focus on preschool-program graduates who are slipping.
This is the way to do it: Broaden access. Set expectations. Then establish supports to ensure the investments are borne out.
Thanks to Seattle voters, the city has enough money to make sure its littlest learners get what they need. Spend it wisely.
