These Fort Worth ISD preschoolers are going to school at community child care centers. Why?

The Fort Worth Independent School District is continuing to offer pre-K options beyond its elementary campuses at community-based child care centers. This school year, five Head Start sites around the district are serving 3- and 4-year-old students through a partnership that officials hope can expand to serve more families and include more site locations.

The Fort Worth ISD school board recently approved a contract with PreK Today, a program managed by nonprofit Child Care Associates , to serve 153 of its youngest students this school year at child care centers mostly located in the southeast Fort Worth area. The free pre-K option is available to eligible families whose children were already enrolled or qualify for the federal Head Start program, which provides child development services to low-income families.

The dual-enrolled students receive the district curriculum by teachers who are employed by Child Care Associates. Other children who are not Fort Worth ISD students are in the same classrooms and receive the same instruction. Each classroom has 15-20 children, records show. The partnership also allows for a full year of care beyond the school year, according to Child Care Associates officials.

“This is kind of a one-year pilot partnership with Fort Worth ISD to explore and expand community-based pre-K delivery with the hope that it can lead to greater participation and sustainability in the future,” said PreK Today Director Amity Halstead.

Fort Worth ISD has been formally partnering with child care centers and early childhood organizations for a handful of years, but this partnership replicates a similar model the district has implemented with the Ella McFadden Early Learning Center at the downtown Fort Worth YMCA. Olayinka Moore-Ojo, the district’s executive director of Early Learning, said the agreement with Child Care Associates is a pivot from its model with the nonprofit from last school year, where staff from both entities would be teaching together in the partnership classrooms. Now, it’s Child Care Associates staff who are solely teaching students.

“It’s not exactly a swap, because we have different facilities, and also because the model is different,” Moore-Ojo said. “What is consistent is that we’re continuing to provide a partnership that provides families with opportunities to quality child care and early childhood education experiences for their children.”

The program sites are:

• The Morris Foundation Child Development Center (2701 Moresby St.)

• North Fort Worth Head Start and Child Development Center (901 NW 30th St.)

• Rosedale V Head Start and Child Development Center (4244 E Rosedale St.)

• The Studio at Riverside (2400 E First St.)

• Blanche Head Start and Child Development Center (2900 Stalcup Road)

At the Morris Foundation center on Tuesday, a classroom of pre-K 3 students were floating among various focus areas with options to paint, make a Play-Doh creation, experiment with water and role play as a parent caring for a newborn. Naomi Hernandez built a “castle” for her mini plastic sharks, who were protected by a square wall made of one layer of wooden blocks. She and her classmates’ school day would span a full day of 7½ hours, which is beyond state requirements that call for a half-day for 3-year-olds. The child care center location allows for children to stay longer depending on their parents’ work day, and the family can pay tuition or utilize a state subsidy for the additional hours of care.

Eligible children must meet at least one of the following criteria to qualify for pre-K at these sites and in general in the state of Texas:

• Be unable to speak and comprehend English

• Be “educationally disadvantaged,” or be eligible for the national free or reduced-price lunch program

• Be experiencing homelessness

• Be the child of an active-duty member of the military, or be the child of a member who was injured or killed during active duty

• Be currently in or previously in the conservatorship of the Department of Family and Protective Services

• Be the child of a person eligible for the Star of Texas Award as a peace officer, firefighter or emergency medical first responder. The award honors those who have been seriously injured or killed while in the line of duty.

The PreK Today contract spans from Aug. 28 to June 30 next year, and Child Care Associates officials are hopeful for the possibility of a contract renewal that would expand the program to more families and additional child care centers. The district is paying PreK Today 90% of the allotted average daily attendance for each enrolled student, which would be a maximum of $600,000 for the duration of the contract, according to records.

“Our community is clear. In Fort Worth, we need to do many things differently to achieve the high-quality education our children deserve,” Kara Waddell, president & CEO of Child Care Associates, said in a statement. “Child Care Associates has always stood as a bridge between formal K-12 education and the 0-5 early learning system. In Texas, we didn’t design PreK to work in community-based programs — and gave all the resources to schools. That needs to change. We’re thrilled that FWISD has recognized the value of community-based early learning. The 24-25 partnership with PreK Today is a step in the right direction.”

Texas Commissioner of Education Mike Morath came to Fort Worth in April to participate in a panel discussion alongside Mayor Mattie Parker, Texas Workforce Commission Chairman Bryan Daniel and Waddell to discuss early childhood education issues. Among them was pre-K partnerships.

Morath encouraged school districts to partner with private child care programs to provide early learning on their behalf beyond providing it in-house, noting that “the outcomes of the 0-5 system are the beginning of (the K-12 system).” But only a handful of Texas school districts have successfully implemented this model due to its complicated logistics, he said. The Austin Independent School District was highlighted as a successful example of bridging the gap between the K-12 system and the early childhood sector on a large scale.

Waddell also testified in August to the House Committee on Public Education about these partnerships, urging policymakers to view pre-K as more than a “standalone good.”

“We’re going to have to look at zero-to-five services as a kind of balanced ecosystem, and this is a way to do that,” she said.