Critical but challenging: Mecklenburg preschool applications could get easier
Applying for preschool challenges families, and that’s why an agreement between Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and county government could be critical, says Tim Gibbons.
Gibbons, who oversees county early childhood education initiatives, says Mecklenburg County and CMS are forging a data-sharing partnership to ensure as many families as possible are enrolling in pre-K programs across Mecklenburg County. The partnership, Gibbons says, will allow officials to see all applications in programs that overlap. It’ll provide a clearer sense of who’s applying and, more importantly, who’s not, he said.
“Not only (will it) help us improve our outreach to bring more families into our pipeline, but once we’ve got families in the pipeline, we need to make it as easy as possible to get enrolled,” Gibbons told county commissioners and school board members at a joint meeting earlier this month. “It can be a challenging process to fill out the application and submit the documents that are required.”
The county and district each run pre-K programs, which take place in different facilities and add to the confusion. MECK Pre-K is the county-funded program that offers free pre-K to 4-year-old children in 46 facilities. CMS’ Bright Beginnings is a free program that serves more than 3,200 eligible 4-year-olds in 57 elementary schools.
The North Carolina pre-K program serves an additional 1,482 children in 29 child care centers.
“We’re striving for parity,” said Matt Hayes, CMS’ deputy superintendent of academics. “We need to serve as many Meck County students as possible.”
One process across Mecklenburg County
Gibbons says leaders want a centralized intake process for the county and CMS programs so there’s one application for families.
“We can identify families who were touching both of our programs and proactively outreach to them to help them navigate the process so that they don’t get confused about what’s going on,” Gibbons said. “But they’ve got two sets of registration workers contacting them.”
For the 2023-24 school year, county officials are also lobbying the state to increase the income eligibility for families for the NC Pre-K program. Families whose gross income is at or below $45,387, according to the state’s median income, are eligible for the program.
Children in poverty being left behind
The push to streamline pre-K applications and reach more families comes after a nationwide report found fewer children enrolling in early childhood education, particularly children from impoverished families.
In North Carolina, 6,002 fewer children enrolled in Head Start, which serves children up to age 5, and 815 fewer enrolled in Early Head Start, according to a report by the National Institute of Early Education Research at Rutgers University.
In North Carolina, 23% of children in poverty enrolled in Head Start and 6% in Early Head Start. Other state findings include:
▪ 26% of Black children in poverty attended Head Start, compared to 16% of white children in poverty, 11% of Asian children in poverty, and 21% of children of other races in poverty
▪ 22% of Hispanic/Latino children in poverty attended Head Start compared to 23% of Non-Hispanic/Non-Latino children.
Progress enrolling children in poverty in Head Start stalled around 40% nationally before the pandemic despite a national decline in child poverty, according to the report.
“Head Start serves the same percentage of children in poverty it did a decade ago, leaving far too many children behind, a problem that the pandemic has now exacerbated greatly,” said Steven Barnett of the National Institute for Early Education Research.
Hayes agreed, saying the pandemic left CMS with a backlog of about 686 3-year-olds that need to be assessed.
