This story is featured in Chalkbeat’s 2024 Philadelphia Early Childhood Education Guide on efforts to improve outcomes for the city’s youngest learners. To keep up with early childhood education and Philadelphia’s public schools, sign up for our free newsletter here.
Still recovering from the pandemic, Philadelphia’s early childhood education sector is nonetheless adapting to the city’s demographic shifts and changing needs.
Take Hadria León and her four-year-old son Otto Martinez, who arrived in Philly from Venezuela last year. Otto has had a tough time adjusting to his new life in the public schools’ pre-kindergarten program, where he’s experienced sensory overload and struggled with the social aspects of a typical pre-K classroom.
The first school they tried could not provide Otto with the support he needed, León said, but now, he’s enrolled in Alexander Adaire Elementary School’s pre-K program and has had a much better experience.
“They embraced my kid,” León said. “We feel we are treated equally here and we really love Philadelphia.”
Otto is part of a growing number of English-language learners integrating into the school district this year.
In the last decade, the number of district K-12 students who are English learners has more than doubled from 12,492 to 25,350, according to district data. And as of the 2024-25 school year, Spanish is the most common non-English home language among enrolled pre-K students by far, according to district spokesperson Christina Clark.
But as these new families look to enter the system, early childhood programs are strained and having trouble hiring and retaining teachers. The rising costs of childcare are also putting added pressure on families, providers, and pre-K educators.
“There are still a lot of closed classrooms,” said Donna Cooper of Children First, an advocacy group. There is also a mismatch between the need and available space.
“Some centers are busting at the seams,” said Diane Castelbuono, the district’s deputy chief of early childhood education. “Where there is plenty of space, not enough families live in those neighborhoods.”
Though Philly does provide thousands of free, high-quality preschool seats, navigating the system can be overwhelming for parents and families. There are multiple different programs run by the city, state, district, and private providers with different eligibility requirements and funding sources.
This year, the city’s trying to simplify the process with a universal application, and step-by-step instructions.
Chalkbeat has created a guide featuring stories that highlight the nuances of our city’s changing early childhood space, and a helpful breakdown of how to use the city’s new universal pre-K application.
We also checked in with first-year preschool teacher Kahn-Tineta Smith to experience what it’s like to enter the workforce this year. And we talked to experts about what our state lawmakers could do to improve access to affordable childcare for families.
Here are some major takeaways from our discussions with childcare experts this year:
Making sure childcare and preschool are ‘high-quality’
Recent data shows while the total child care capacity has declined “substantially” (about 7%) between 2022 and 2024, according to a report and new data from the Reinvestment Fund, a community development financial institution. But “the proportion of care and number of seats in certified and high-quality programs has continued to grow,” the report said.
“High quality” programs are those that are rated by the state and staffed with certified teachers, they are clean, safe, regularly inspected and the ratio of educators to students is at least one teacher for every ten students.
Jacob Rosch, a senior policy analyst at Reinvestment Fund, found that Philadelphia’s high-quality pre-K programs recovered more quickly in the months and years after the start of the pandemic than their counterparts.
According to Parker’s office, 98% of Philly’s city-affiliated pre-K programs are considered high quality. Though a Children First report determined across all childcare providers in the city, only 36% are considered high-quality.
LaToshia DeVose, program director of early childhood education at Reinvestment Fund, told Chalkbeat her organization is hyper focused this year on supporting those small, neighborhood child care businesses and helping them earn a high-quality designation.
These early childhood providers often operate in areas and communities where there are a lot of low-income families, DeVose said. But economic barriers can stymie these small providers’ efforts to expand their businesses to meet the need in their neighborhoods. This year, she said, her organization is aiming to improve the quality of some 900 seats in the city alone.
“These programs do have potential,” DeVose said and they deserve support “because they are serving children who are some of our most vulnerable.”
DeVose said despite the strength of Philadelphia’s highly-rated preschool programs, the city will only have enough high-quality seats for 50% of eligible children this year. Rosch and his research colleagues have attributed some of the persistent gaps in access to high real estate costs, barriers to community engagement, and persistent staffing shortages among other issues.
Tackling the early childhood teacher shortage
Among the greatest challenges facing the sector is the ongoing K-12 teacher shortage, Cooper said, which is exacerbating the problem in early childhood because those with proper certification can earn more teaching early grades in a school district.
Parker has sought to address that problem by allocating $3 million for signing and retention bonuses for some early childhood teachers who stay in their jobs. Lead teachers are eligible to get up to $2,000 and assistant teachers up to $1,500.
But advocates say more could be done to raise wages and make the job more attractive.
In all of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties, child care workers “don’t earn a living wage,” said Shaun Elliott, president and CEO of the local YMCA, one of the biggest providers of child care services in the area.
Facing the rising costs of childcare
This year, the state’s 2024-25 budget includes a new tax credit for employers that contribute to their employees’ child care costs, as well as a $17.7 million increase in funding for early childhood education.
But for many families, it’s not enough. In Pennsylvania, the Economic Policy Institute estimated that the annual cost for infant care for a family is nearly $12,000 — more than in-state college tuition in 41 states.
And though the state has tried to chip away at those costs via a childcare subsidy and the incoming Trump administration has floated the possibility expanding the child tax credit at the federal level, advocates say Pennsylvania should look to other states to see what works.
Carly Sitrin is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Philadelphia. Contact Carly at csitrin@chalkbeat.org.
Dale Mezzacappa is a senior writer for Chalkbeat Philadelphia, where she covers K-12 schools and early childhood education in Philadelphia. Contact Dale at dmezzacappa@chalkbeat.org.
