The Cambridge Preschool Program has helped many families afford early education, with parents praising the city’s publicly funded system for expanding access to preschool. But city officials say the program is unlikely to add new partner schools, leaving little room for additional providers hoping to join.
CPP, which began in the 2023–24 school year, offers free or affordable preschool for all Cambridge 4-year-olds and some 3-year-olds. Families apply through a centralized system and can enroll in classrooms operated by Cambridge Public Schools, the Department of Human Service Programs and community-based providers.
For Cambridge parent Taye Birhan, the program helped his family secure preschool after moving to the city and trying to navigate their options.
“Figuring out education for our son in a place where we didn’t really have connections was the most stressful thing, but it ended up being the easiest once we connected with CPP,” Birhan said. “It made a big difference for our family, and we’ve really loved the experience so far.”
Cambridge parent Elizabeth Maltby said the program has made preschool financially manageable for her family. Maltby, who moved to Cambridge from Michigan in 2025, said learning about the city’s universal preschool system was part of what made the move possible.
“I had a friend who told me Cambridge has universal pre-K, so we thought we could actually afford to move here,” Maltby said. “The preschool for us is $0, and we would not be able to comfortably live in Cambridge on a single income without CPP.”
While parents say they are benefiting from the program, the number of young children in Cambridge has remained steady in recent years, limiting the need to add more preschool providers. U.S. Census Bureau estimates show the city had 4,527 children under age 5 in 2022, 4,561 in 2023 and 4,451 in 2024.
Cheryl Ohlson, director of the Cambridge Office of Early Childhood, said the city reviews enrollment data each year to decide whether to expand the program’s partnerships with preschool providers.
“If we were to expand the program and add more CPP providers, the same number of CPP children would be spread more thinly across a broader number of providers, which means more empty seats within the system,” Ohlson said.
For new providers hoping to open preschools in Cambridge, this structure presents challenges. Ọna Anosike, founder of Inkwell Montessori, a small independent school set to open in September in North Cambridge, said she began exploring a partnership with CPP while planning the school.
“When I learned that the CPP wasn’t allowing new partnerships, despite being the only program that gives lower-income families access to high-quality early education, that was confusing,” Anosike said. “Without that partnership, we lose out on a lot of funding that can go to families that are interested in a school like Inkwell.”
Ohlson explained the city is seeing a broader shift in the early childhood landscape.
“Birth rates have declined fairly significantly over the last 10 to 15 years,” Ohlson said. “There just aren’t more and more preschoolers in the city, but we are seeing more preschools opening up, so there is a mismatch between supply and demand.”
Ohlson said the city reviews enrollment and application trends each year to determine whether the program needs to add more seats or providers.
“When we see that demand for CPP seats increases, then we’ll be in a position where we need to add more seats to the system,” Ohlson said. “When that happens, we would put communication out across the city inviting new providers to be part of the system.”
Anosike said she hopes the city will eventually open the program to new providers if demand grows, allowing more community-based schools to participate.
“I would just like more clarity and more communication,” Anosike said. “Even if it’s not this next school year, knowing when or how schools could become part of the system would make a big difference.”
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