If you're a parent, by the way,
you search for preschool options,
you know how much of a headache that can be.
As you may remember,
back in November of 2020,
ballot measure funding universal
preschool passed in Multnomah
County through an income tax on
the county's highest earners.
64% of voters approved it.
Now we're starting to see something tangible.
Christine Petawatt has information on
Multnomah County's preschool for all
program and how parents looking for a
preschool next year can get in on it.
Enrollment for Multnomah County's preschool.
For all program officially opened last week,
there are more than 670 spots
available but already the county
has received over 740 applications.
One of the many parents hoping for
a spot in Multnomah County's new
Universal Preschool program is treto
and the parents of two kids,
one seven years old boy and.
Turning three years old girl you know.
Looking for preschool
toe is familiar with the
stress associated with finding
a good preschool option.
He and his wife Ruby had
to do it for their son's
middle income level families.
You know, it's it's just hard,
he says. Preschool can be expensive
and options can be hard to find.
For families that make too much to
qualify as low income but too little to
comfortably pay for preschool for now.
Oh, and other families will play
the waiting game until July when
they'll find out if they have a spot
in Multnomah County's preschool for
all programs starting in the fall.
It's the result of a ballot measure funding
universal preschool that passed in 2020.
Here we have 48 sites available.
That's Leslie Barnes,
the preschool and early Learning
Division director for Multnomah County.
She's leading the team implementing
the preschool for all program.
We have several opportunities
in many languages as well,
so we were making sure we're intentional
about how do we roll this out.
Barnes says parents will have
choices when it comes to location or
whether they need full day preschool.
She says the county has been working
to create the infrastructure
necessary to support the program and.
That's taken time.
We knew that we had to invest in
infrastructure including workforce
and preschool programs who had
really been closed for due to COVID
during the pandemic. Preschool
and childcare options dwindled.
Not good when Oregon was already considered
what's called a child care desert,
and so that means that there is only
one slot for every three children.
That's Alyssa Chatterjee, Oregon's
early learning system Director,
25 of Oregons, 36 counties is a childcare.
Hazard that was pre COVID so we know
that the numbers are probably worse now.
It's even higher for infants and toddlers.
The entire state qualifies and so this is.
This was a crisis before the pandemic
and the pandemic just exacerbated it.
That's why she's excited about the preschool
for all program in Multnomah County,
but I think it's really a great
chance for us to learn and see how
we could do differently at the state,
but also really lifts up the
importance of local investment
and early learning in Community,
Chatterjee says other.
Counties have expressed interest in
similar universal preschool initiatives,
and we'll be watching what happens in
Multnomah County closely. Meantime,
Multnomah County has a long road ahead.
Full universal is going to take
us 10 years to get to that,
so I know I'm asking for folks to be patient,
but we really just don't have the
supply available to be fully universal,
and we want to do it well.
But if we were to serve every preschool
universally every preschooler,
we're talking about 19,000
preschoolers for this first
year. Barnes says 670 or so slots.
Are available each year.
They hope to add 500 more slots, but
just knowing there's a programs already
in place and growing and going to
be widely available for families,
I think that's that's a great step.
Leslie Barnes,
with the county says enrollment will
stay open until the end of May.
That's because this is not a first come,
first serve sort of situation.
In fact, they want as many families
as possible to have the opportunity
to get their names in children that
are low income in foster care or face
other barriers will be prioritized.
Christine panich. KJW news.