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When it comes to early education, urban children face barriers that make enrollment harder than it is for their suburban peers. These issues may be as simple as a scheduling conflict for the family car or a lack of public transportation that prevents parents from dropping off or picking up their child from preschool.  Or they can be as personal as a cultural choice to keep children at home until they are required to attend school. 

Barriers to preschool access are as diverse as urban communities themselves, meaning there is no silver bullet that can remove all the roadblocks these families face. The key is to meet every family where they are with a willingness to help them overcome these barriers while respecting their choices. That way, we can give every child access to programs that prepare them for lifelong achievement.

Connectivity and mobility

My organization offers an online kindergarten readiness curriculum covering early literacy, numeracy and science concepts. Each of the families we serve is provided a coach who monitors their student’s progress through the program. We also provide hardware and internet to families without them.  We can serve any family, but we focus on the most vulnerable populations: immigrant, refugee, ELL, low-income and other groups that may have few or no options for site-based preschool.

One interesting problem we have encountered while working with urban families, particularly low-income families, is they tend to be very mobile. They move frequently to find a home or apartment with cheaper rent or a better location, and all that movement can be a challenge when ensuring that their child has access to the resources they need for our curriculum. The onus is on us to navigate these potential disruptions in their child’s learning by ensuring they have these resources wherever they live.

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