Should you get ready for preschool now?
By Donna Thomas, March 1999

If you have a child that will be two years old by September 2000, the answer is most likely to be yes! My quest for a preschool began in April 1998 when my son, Gregory, was 15 months old. My goal was to start preschool in September 1999. So, armed with the free Bay Area Parent "Childcare/Preschool Finder" handbook, I contacted forty preschools and discovered a few startling facts that Silicon Valley parents need to know.

First, most preschools hold open house and open enrollment between January and March each year six to nine months before your child attends! Most of the seats are full on the first day of open enrollment.

Second, preschools often specify the days and times when you can visit. Some require that you sign on to a waiting list to visit the preschool.

Third, because of the high demand for seats at open enrollment time, parents often wait in line to register. Some are forced to "camp out" overnight just to secure their place on the line.

Finally, it is common for preschools to have a "sibling policy" whereby siblings of existing students are accommodated first. The result is that a preschool with capacity for 40 children with fifteen siblings attending the next fall term has an effective enrollment capacity of only 25 for which you vie.

I narrowed my search of the forty preschools down to ten a manageable number to visit and then finally selected the one preschool that best met my criteria. When open enrollment came, I registered quickly and effortlessly, but that wasn’t the case for everyone. Rather than loose a seat, many Las Madres moms scurried around this past January to place non-refundable registration fees of $40 to $100 at multiple preschools with the intent to lock down seats while they continued their search for the right preschool an expensive proposition that is easily avoided.

The free Childcare/Preschool Finder, an annual publication, is available with the May issue of Bay Area Parent. I have arranged with the publisher to provide a quantity for your Las Madres playgroup. If your desire is to for your child to attend preschool in September 2000, you should be sure to get a copy of this issue.

In summary, the number of available preschool seats in Silicon Valley has not kept up with the 1997-1999 population explosion. It is very important that you begin your preschool search now so that you are ready by the January-March 2000 open enrollment period the timeframe when you will need to enroll your child for September 2000 preschool.

SIDEBAR

How to use the Bay Area Parent Childcare/Preschool Finder

The information that you will find in the Bay Area Parent Childcare/Preschool Finder includes general location of the preschool; curriculum (developmental, academic, hybrid); age requirements; capacity (total number of openings including those allocated for siblings of existing students); teacher-student ratio (California law sets a maximum of twelve 3-year-old students per teacher); tuition (the amount shown will be the 1999 tuition unless indicated otherwise and the 2000 tuition will likely be higher note that this figure does not include the registration fee); hours of operation and State of California Department of Social Services license number.

As to suggested use, first decide on the monthly tuition amount that you can comfortably afford. Contact the preschools in your preferred area. Ask them to send an information packet to you. After you have read the material that they send you, narrow down the preschools further by your desired curriculum. It is important that you read and compare this information because terminology is not always consistent from preschool to preschool. Next decide which preschools offer classes on the days and times that fit your personal schedule.

In addition to these factors, decide whether you want a standard preschool at which you drop your children off for class, or a parent-participating preschool, one in which you sign up to stay and work during class, or whether you want full daycare services.

Next, visit the preschools that you have selected with a group of other mothers that are also interested in preschool registration. This is very helpful because they will see things that you miss and ask questions that you will forget to ask. If possible, visit armed with several dozen questions that you ask of each preschool director that you meet.

Finally, to narrow your search even further, call the Community Care Licensing Agency at 408-277-1286. Tell them that you are researching preschools for your child and want to review the accident and complaint records against the preschools that are on your list. You will be read a list of all reports that have been filed during the previous two-year period. You can also visit the agency and read the records yourself.

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