The Impact of Universal Pre-K on Child Care Providers in FWISD 2014 participate in annual training, they are generally not active participants in information networks (associations, partnerships, list-servs) that distribute information relevant to their business. Focus group and site visit participants also believe that FWISD could do a better job collaborating with child care providers and keeping them better informed. Access to information is an area of particular need among child care homes. In addition to being uninformed, almost all (88%) child care homes are unsure how their operations might be affected by pre-k expansion. This uncertainty aligns in part with survey comments and focus group and site visit findings suggesting that home-based providers are much less likely than centers to approach their operations with traditional business practices such as budgeting. Though survey comments of homes frequently mention their focus on costsavings as a mechanism to maintain financial stability, many consider tuition as personal income, rather than in the traditional accounting sense of revenue to offset expenses, and thus cannot truly predict the impact of losing an enrolled 4 year-old. This indicates an increased need for business support for home-based providers so that they are best able to minimize the impact of public pre-k on their businesses. The benefit of this business support would not be limited to home-based providers, as many smaller child care centers also lack a traditional accounting model to track revenues and expenses. Even for providers that have thought about how they will be impacted by FWISD universal pre-k expansion, planning to address FWISD pre-k expansion is seriously limited by the lack of information available about where the additional bond-funded FWISD pre-k classrooms will be located and the date they will commence operation. As one survey respondent comments: “I was aware of this happening and we are not sure how this is going to impact our enrollment. We are in a holding pattern at this time.” Focus group and site visit participants indicated that locations and timing is a “moving target,” and that perhaps once they know when and where the additional pre-k classes will be located, they can better strategize how to minimize some of their financial losses. Providers stressed that collaboration and communication from FWISD would be helpful in their planning.
Perceptions of Public Pre-K among Child Care Providers Regardless of their prior awareness of FWISD’s universal pre-k expansion plans, all Providers participating in the survey, focus groups, and site visits received a brief neutral overview of the District’s plans as detailed in the 2013 bond package. This description is provided along with the survey questions in Appendix XII. The general perception of FWISD pre-k expansion among survey respondents align with Lori Taylor’s findings that public pre-kindergarten has and will gradually crowd private child care providers out of the pre-k market, if not out of the child care market overall. Whether pleading, angry, or resigned, survey comments express the competition private providers feel with FWISD. One respondent elaborated on this competitive position saying: “For the past 10 years we have been competing heavily with the I.S.D.'s... 32 | P a g e
