Frederick County Public Schools reports expansion of pre-K offerings, Judy Center activity; sliding-scale guidance still pending

Frederick County Public Schools early childhood staff briefed district leaders on pre-K programming, centralized enrollment and Judy Center operations at a committee meeting. Leslie Fry, supervisor of early childhood education and Judy Centers, and Lauren Perry, coordinator of program quality, outlined program types, enrollment counts and supports for families.

The presentation matters because local pre-K expansion and the state’s Blueprint for Maryland’s Future changes could affect how seats are funded and who pays. Staff warned that new state guidance on a possible sliding scale for family payments will have budget and administrative consequences if FCPS decides to implement it.

“We do have 90 pre k programs across Frederick County Public Schools,” Lauren Perry said, describing the district’s current inventory of classrooms. Of those 90, Perry said 50 are “traditional” full-day pre-K classrooms, defined in FCPS as roughly 20 students with a pre-K teacher and a pre-K instructional assistant and seats prioritized for children who meet income eligibility at 300% or below the federal poverty level.

Perry described other program types the district operates: 16 inclusion pre-K programs (mixed special-education and income-eligible students), five self-contained programs for students with specialized needs, and 13 half-day inclusion classrooms for age-3 students. She also described an “innovative pre-K” model hosted at several high schools that pairs high-school CTE child-development classes with on-site pre-K opportunities for younger children and internship hours for…