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Chicago Public Schools is considering an enrollment policy change that would give pre-K students priority to stay in the same school for kindergarten, even if they live outside the school’s boundary or are at a magnet school.
Currently, if a pre-K student lives outside a school’s boundary or attends full-day pre-K at a magnet school, they are not guaranteed a seat in kindergarten. If approved, the proposed policy would give current pre-K students priority after siblings and children of staff, but ahead of other applicants. For neighborhood schools, students living in the boundary would still get top priority. After them, siblings of students and children of staff, and then pre-K students would be offered seats before other students from outside the boundary. The policy would not apply to selective enrollment schools.
If approved, the changes would take effect in next year’s application cycle for attendance in the 2026-27 school year.
Full-day pre-K for 4-year-olds in Chicago is a relatively new program. Former Mayor Rahm Emanuel promised universal pre-K in 2018 shortly before announcing he wouldn’t seek a third term. Former Mayor Lori Lightfoot followed through on the promise, and now, the school district offers 4-year-old full-day pre-K across the system.
Leslie McKinily, head of the Office of Early Childhood with Chicago Public Schools, said the goal is to increase the number of pre-K students who remain in the same school for kindergarten.
It’s unclear from the data why families change schools for kindergarten, McKinily said. For some, it may be that their child got an offer in a selective enrollment program or different school the family prefers. But McKinily said there are instances where pre-K students do not want to leave.
“There are a small number of schools that are forced with telling families, ‘No, you cannot stay here for kindergarten because I just don’t have the space,’” McKinily said.
That can be difficult for principals who have used universal pre-K as a recruitment tool to build enrollment at their school, McKinley said.
Seth Lavin, principal of Brentano Elementary Math & Science Academy in Logan Square, said his school has faced this issue. After the school was spared from closure in 2013, they worked to boost enrollment — and offering pre-K helped.
“Even if families have apprehensions about CPS or one particular school, they’ll often feel good when they walk into a preschool classroom and see great preschool teachers doing great preschool work,” Lavin said. “Then once you’ve got a family in your school, and they realize this is a nice place to be, my kid is happy here, it’s easier to convert them to kindergarten.”
But as Logan Square gentrified and Brentano grew in popularity with neighborhood families, Lavin said it’s been harder to continue offering seats to students who live outside the boundary. Because pre-K enrollment is still a lottery based on income and other hardship factors, Lavin said his pre-K classrooms are often more diverse than the kindergarten classes.
“Nothing is magic. This one policy change is not going to entirely stop segregation and inequity and how people can all go access school in Chicago,” Lavin said. “But it can be a step that helps give families facing economic hardship access to schools that are gentrifying when they’re in neighborhoods that are gentrifying.”
The proposed changes to the district’s enrollment policy would also allow students to stay enrolled in their neighborhood school in later grades, even if their family moves out of the attendance boundary.
The proposed policy will be posted for public comment for 30 days and is expected to go before the school board for a final vote in December.
Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.
