Universal preschool begins this fall in Cambridge for all 4-year-olds in the city and to eligible, higher-priority 3-year-olds. City councillors are already hoping the program can be more, well, universal.
The Cambridge Preschool Program got 1,067 applications for its first year and has assigned 777 children, meaning around one-quarter of 3-year-olds, according to data shared Aug. 5 with the City Council. None were high-priority, meaning with special needs or from families who are low-income or have experienced homelessness, said Ellen Semonoff, assistant city manager for Human Services.
The long-stated goal was universal preschool, though, and councillors Ayesha Wilson and Sumbul Siddiqui asked what it looked like to fulfill that.
About $7.5 million, Semonoff estimated. “Is providing a 3-year-old program for all families, regardless of income, the direction that the city wants to go in?” she asked, noting that the city is look at providing universally available after-school programs that would also need funding.
Providing time to smooth out operational challenges means the next academic year will look essentially the same, interim Cambridge Public Schools superintendent David Murphy said, but looking ahead to the 2026-2027 school year would give “ample time to consider whether or not, on the city or the school side, there may be things that we would like to consider to improve the program.”
Numbers won’t be entirely static: In the coming years four classrooms will be added at the new Just A Start building near Alewife called Rindge Commons North. Another four classrooms will become available with the expected September 2025 opening of the Tobin Montessori School in West Cambridge, on a shared $299 million campus with the Darby Vassall Upper School. Semonoff said she expects there to be 70 more seats for 3-year-olds next year.
More than a decade
The city’s budget allocated $34.4 million to the launch of the Cambridge Preschool Program, with $1.2 million worth of new, full-time positions in the Office of Early Childhood and $5.1 million in capital investment to build out prekindergarten classrooms. Budgeters said they expected operating costs of $20 million a year.
To add all 3-year-olds, the “financial implication is definitely huge,” Wilson acknowledged.
The council also paused to appreciate the arrival of the program launching in the fall. “It’s been such a priority for years, and to bring it here, it took a lot. I’m very excited about where we are,” Siddiqui said, “and I think we’ll learn a lot in the next these two years.”
This program replaces a junior kindergarten program that was open only to children who were at least 4 years and five months old. Expansion into universal pre-k frustrated the City Council for several terms since crystallizing as a goal in September 2013; when City Manager Yi-An Huang arrived 10 years later, he prioritized it as a goal because he felt it served as the largest joint issue across all sectors of governmental and residential life.
Staying with a school
There is a single program application for families to fill out, from which some children will be assigned to preschool classes in Cambridge Public Schools, some at Department of Human Services sites and some to preschools at local day care providers partnering with the city. Ninety percent of children were assigned to one of their family’s top three choices, Murphy said.
If a child is assigned to Cambridge Public Schools – which will serve about the same amount of 3- and 4-years-olds as before – they will continue at that school until fifth grade, or eighth grade if at the Amigos School. Children who need special-education services not available at that particular school will be reassigned to a school that can meet their needs. Children assigned to a non-CPS site will need to go through the kindergarten lottery.
“We are laying the foundation right from the first time a 3- or a 4-year-old comes into Cambridge Public Schools that they can have a successful academic trajectory and move, hopefully, toward graduation from CRLS,” Murphy said.
Assessing the advantage
Wilson and councillor Patty Nolan wanted the city to track the program’s effectiveness, especially in closing stubborn academic achievement gaps years down the road among races and incomes. “It’s great to have everybody in programs, but if they’re all in programs and we see the same [academic] results five or 10 years from now, we will have failed,” Nolan said.
The city and school district will watch the data and is working with an an evaluation partner, Semonoff said.
CPS sites will match the regular school day. Due to state regulations, 4-year-olds will not be eligible for certain after-school programs. Parents interested in extended day or summer care options will need to pay.
Details on when applications will be open for the 2025-2026 school year are not available. More information on the CPP can be found on its website.
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This quote is very confusing: “None were high-priority, meaning they have special needs or are from families who are low-income or have experienced homelessness.” Clearly it is not the case that no applicants were from high priority categories…