Preschool for All: county staff recommend keeping 10-hour seats tuition-free after cost-sharing study flags equity, administrative risks

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 board that means-testing or adding family payments risks reducing take-up among eligible families, disproportionately harms families of color and those with language or technology barriers, and could erode continuity of care for families currently enrolled at full-day sites. Staff cited research finding that means-tested benefits can deter eligible participants and said PFA's recommendation is to continue offering up to 10 hours of free preschool per day for all families while using targeted outreach and other policy tools to ensure equity.

Financial modeling and trade-offs: Pearl said that if families paid the full difference for ten-hour seats, the county's model projects average net revenue of roughly $6.9 million between FY27 and FY31; a 50% family share would reduce net revenue and, in staff modeling, could lower net revenue by about $105,000 per year. However, staff cautioned that PFA's per-seat allocations are often higher than average private-pay tuition, and collecting payments would require significant software and staffing investments; county IT estimated three years minimum to design, procure and implement an automated payment system if the county were to collect family payments centrally.

Operational concerns and equity risks: Staff said adding income verification would require more family navigator (connector) support and might increase linguistic and technological barriers for families. The county's decline study and other outreach work will be expanded to better estimate how many families would decline seats under means-testing and how that would affect priority populations.

Inclusion supports and staffing: Pearl described rising demand for inclusion supports—about 16—8% of enrolled children self-report developmental delay or disability and provider-reported need for inclusion supports is higher. Inclusion fund usage and site participation rose considerably (staff reported a 77% growth in site requests between FY25 and FY26). The division plans to use a forthcoming true cost-of-care study, a labor market analysis and population forecasts to inform funding and workforce strategies for inclusion supports.

Board response and next steps: Commissioners repeatedly asked for additional analysis, including evidence from comparable programs on the effect of co-pays and more granular district-level data on seat demand. Pearl and staff recommended continuing to offer up to 10 hours of free preschool per day for all families and to prioritize targeted outreach, completion of the true cost-of-care study, population forecasting and labor market analysis before making structural changes to eligibility or payments.

No board vote or formal policy change was made; staff will return with additional data and policy options informed by the studies referenced above.