Preschool for All Growth Outpaces Enrollment Projections

Multnomah County’s Preschool for All program will add 174 seats in January. 

The Multnomah County Board of Commissioners last week granted the Department of County Human Services Preschool & Early Learning Division’s request for $3.9 million from the Preschool for All contingency fund to increase program capacity.

“These mid-year slots help us grow this program more assertively, and help many of our providers increase the impact that they’re having on the lives of our children, families and preschool workforce,” chair Jessica Vega Pederson during last week’s session. “For each of these lucky families, this will also be an incredible chance to start their children on a path of early learning that we know will make a huge difference in the years to come.”

Leslee BarnesPreschool for All (PFA) was approved by voters in 2020 and launched its first cohort two years later. Participating providers have reported success in hiring and retaining staff, providing staff benefits and even expanding their operations.

The program has outpaced the number of planned preschool openings since it launched in the 2022-2023 school year. The additional seats will bring PFA enrollment to 2,244 students, keeping the program on track to achieve its universal status of 11,750 openings in 2030.

The budget modification will allow the addition of 13 new PFA locations.

“Five of the new sites are current PFA providers expanding into new locations, and eight locations are with providers that are new to PFA,” Leslee Barnes, director of Multnomah County's Preschool & Early Learning Division, said.

Sustainable Early Education

The PFA program is structured as early education stabilization: By supporting providers and recruiting new ones, the county aimed to counter the 20% decrease in childcare sites that existed at the program’s launch, a decrease largely attributed to the pandemic. Key to this is providing livable wage jobs for teachers and staff. While the median wage for a child care worker in Oregon is just over $17, PFA preschool assistants make at least $21.68 an hour, with lead teachers who hold college degrees set at about $39 hourly. The county reports 70% of owners and directors of PFA sites are BIPOC.

PFA offers free, voluntary preschool to Multnomah County residents, prioritizes enrolling families who have the biggest barriers to preschool: families of color, families experiencing homelessness or who are impacted by incarceration, children with disabilities and children in the foster care system. It is also a resource for families who don’t qualify for free preschool due to income restrictions, but who still struggle to pay the soaring costs of childcare – which last year was $13,000 on average in the state of Oregon, according to a report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

The county reports that for every dollar spent on quality preschool education, the return to the community is between $7 and $12. That's because early socialization and education allows for healthier child development, and allows greater workforce participation for parents -- particularly mothers.

Preschool for All is also an equity measure, requiring providers to pledge not to suspend or expel students. The disproportionate disciplining of Black students has become known as the “preschool to prison pipeline”: Through systemic racism, Black children are punished more harshly, and disenfranchised from positive school experiences early on. 

“It's a two-generation anti-poverty program, brightening kids' futures and allowing parents to work more or to get more education and training,” economist Mary King, professor emeritus at Portland State University, said.

“It's a matter of racial justice as Black and Brown kids get left behind, even before kindergarten.”

PFA was designed to be culturally inclusive, and to allow families to find a site that is the best fit for their child. In order to reach traditionally marginalized communities, PFA has funded navigation services at four Family Connector Organizations: Self Enhancement, Inc., the Immigrant & Refugee Community Organization (IRCO), the Latino Network and the Native American Youth & Family Center. 

According to the county, 73% of PFA enrollees identify as BIPOC, and 22% of enrolled children have developmental delays or disabilities.

“Adding a second opportunity to increase PFA seats each year allows the preschool and early learning division to be more nimble and continue to advance toward the goal of universal preschool by 2030,” Barnes said.

Infant, Toddler Programs

PFA is funded by top earners in Multnomah County, with a 1.5% personal income tax that kicks in on taxable income that exceeds $125,000 for individual filers and $200,000 for joint filers. An additional 1.5% is added on taxable income that exceeds $250,000 for individuals and $400,000 for couples. A rate increase of 0.8% has been delayed until 2027. 

The contingency fund comprises 10% of the expected PFA tax revenue for the fiscal year.

Brooke Chilton Timmons of the Multnomah County Department of Human Services explained that part of PFA is the funding of infant and toddler stabilization services.

“Preschool expansions in communities outside of Multnomah County have led to decreases in infant toddler seats,” she said. “This is largely because of the high cost associated with care for infants and toddlers. The required ratio of teachers to children is much higher for this age group, making cost of care more expensive. This higher cost incentivized providers to stop offering infant and toddler care. Multnomah County is already considered a childcare desert for infants and toddlers, because there are more than three children for every infant and toddler seat. The strategy of using PFA resources to subsidize infant and toddler care at PFA sites is a critical component of ensuring that the continuum of care that our community relies on does not collapse.”

For more information on Preschool for All and enrollment, visit multco.us/preschool.