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 high-school students.

FCPS has centralized the pre-K application process. Perry said the central office had processed about 1,600 applications at the time the slides were prepared and “we were at over 1,800 as of yesterday.” Staff said the system screens applications, confirms eligibility, and provides technical assistance to families and school staff.

To broaden options for families, FCPS staff said the district created a mixed-delivery release so eligible families who prefer private or community childcare can authorize FCPS to forward their completed centralized application to participating private providers. The district also is drafting a multilingual screening process tied to MSDE’s updated student language portrait information and has a centralized database for “child find” referrals to reduce delays in special-education eligibility and services.

Kathy Allen, early childhood coordinator, summarized Judy Center operations and funding. “Each site receives $330,000 of grant funds a year,” she said, and those grants support a program administrator and outreach coordinator as well as family engagement, playgroups, professional learning and community partner coordination. Allen listed six Judy Center sites in the county and said the centers served more than 1,500 children during the grant year covered by the presentation.

Staff described program supports and quality control measures. Leslie Fry said 76 of the district’s pre-K classrooms had completed a multi-year accreditation process in the past three years; staff intend to finish accreditation for the remaining classrooms this year so all 90 will be accredited on a five-year cycle. Fry also noted an FCPS initiative to support pre-K instructional assistants to obtain a Child Development Associate credential; she said the district expects full-time pre-K assistants to hold at least a CDA by July 1, 2027.

Maryland’s kindergarten readiness assessment (KRA) is returning, staff said. Leslie Fry described the vendor selected for the early literacy and math portions as a Renaissance product that includes two computer-adaptive components and a teacher-observation tool called SABERS. She said the SABERS observation is a teacher-completed instrument intended to capture classroom behaviors and social-emotional indicators that teachers can use to guide instruction. Staff said the state requires districts to complete the KRA by Oct. 10 for students entering kindergarten.

On funding and potential family payments, district staff said recent MSDE guidance introduces a tiered approach beyond the current tier 1 (at or below 300% of the federal poverty level). Fry said the guidance contemplates five subcategories within what the presentation called tier 2 and that family payments would be capped relative to family income in lower tier 2 bands (for example, the state’s example capped some payments at about 7% of family income). Staff said seat cost estimates in state materials are rising—Fry cited a projected per-seat cost of about $19,000 in a future year—making funding and implementation decisions important for local budgeting.

Staff reiterated that FCPS is not implementing a sliding-scale payment this enrollment cycle. “For this year, we’re not implementing a sliding scale,” a district presenter said; instead, the district will continue to enroll tier 1 students first and use tier 2 placements only if seats are available. District staff said adopting a sliding scale locally would require earlier discussion because it would affect budgeting and administrative processes.

Questions from committee members addressed outreach to families who are not already plugged into school communications, busing and placement when local classrooms fill, and partnerships with community providers and health-care partners. Staff described outreach methods including school signage, mailed postcards to areas with low enrollment, social-media campaigns with public relations, partnerships with public libraries and pediatric contacts, and using the district’s early-childhood advisory group to coordinate stakeholders.

Staff also said the district promotes the ReadyRosie family-facing resource (a growth-and-development video/text tool) with partners such as Head Start; they described ReadyRosie as free for families who register and available in multiple languages.

The presentation closed with staff offering to return with more details in the fall. District leaders signaled that continued communication will be necessary as state guidance and funding details about tiers and seat costs are finalized.

Ending: Staff said FCPS will continue refining enrollment projections and outreach while awaiting further state guidance before making changes to local payment or enrollment policies.