Support coordinated enrollment across the mixed delivery system to ensure family choice and provider stability¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · no claims cited

Description¶

The report recommends that states organize recruitment, outreach, and enrollment — "coordinated enrollment" — so families can find settings that meet their needs. It states that "West Virginia requires that each county develop a unified enrollment system that ensures all eligible children are offered a placement," Alabama runs a statewide online enrollment system, and New York City uses a single application for all universal preschool providers. Coordinated enrollment also helps direct families to undersubscribed slots and stabilizes provider funding.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• A state or regional entity must operate a shared enrollment or application process across providers

Constraints¶

• Without coordination, providers run individual waiting lists and may suffer financially from enrollment fluctuations, per the report

Target Learners¶

• Families choosing among public preschool settings
• Children eligible for state-funded preschool

Target Learning Goals¶

• Equitable family access to preferred, high-quality preschool settings

Affordances¶

• Mixed Delivery Governance Three Approaches

Related Strategies¶

• Aligned Standards Across Mixed Delivery Settings
• Use centralized enrollment, controlled choice, and transparency systems to ensure equitable access and integration
• Use local resources to serve children birth through age 3 to stabilize community providers as 4-year-olds move into TK
• Five ways state and local chambers can support working families by supporting female providers of color

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Garver, K., Weisenfeld, G. G., Connors-Tadros, L., Hodges, K., Melnick, H., & Plasencia, S. (2023). State preschool in a mixed delivery system: Lessons from five states. Learning Policy Institute. https://doi.org/10.54300/387.446