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Preschool for All: county staff recommend keeping 10-hour seats tuition-free after cost-sharing study flags equity, administrative risks
Summary
Multnomah County staff presented exploratory scenarios to restrict free full-day preschool or introduce cost-sharing for higher-income families; analyses show potential revenue but also risks to participation, trust and program administration, and staff recommended preserving universal 10-hour access while pursuing further studies.
Rachel Pearl, interim director for the Department of County Human Services, updated the board on Preschool for All (PFA) implementation, outreach improvements and an exploratory analysis of two approaches to 10-hour full-day seat access for families above 400% of the federal poverty level.
The two scenarios examined were: (1) restrict free 10-hour seats to families at or below 400% of FPL with annual income verification before placement (staff estimated the administrative and software costs for this change at about $2.8 million at universal scale and warned it could add six to eight weeks to the application timeline); and (2) keep six hours/day funded for all families and require families above 400% FPL to pay the difference between the six-hour and ten-hour rate (staff used current rates to estimate the full-difference payment at about $623/month or a 50% cost-share of about $311/month).
Why it matters: staff told the…
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