The Office of Early Childhood and its public/private partnership, Invest in Children, operates the County’s UPK program. The UPK program provides funding to existing high-quality preschools in Cuyahoga County, with the aim of helping them create a gold standard preschool experience and increase access by providing scholarships to families. In addition, the UPK program offers technical assistance and coaching for teachers to improve the quality of classroom instruction. Scholarships are also offered to families in need, ranging from 25% to 50% off the preschool fee for families at or below 400% of the federal poverty level.

Preschool enrollment varies across the year, with higher numbers toward the middle of the academic year (Q1 and Q4) and lower enrollment in the summer months (Q2 and Q3). At the end of 2018, UPK preschools were at about 90% capacity.  In 2018, the Office of Early Childhood worked with researchers at Case Western Reserve University on a rigorous evaluation of UPK and the results confirmed the positive impact shown in earlier evaluations. Compared to children who get 18 months of high quality pre-school in non-UPK sites, children in UPK sites are about three times as likely to be on track for language and literacy, and shows a stronger social foundation for learning in kindergarten. When we follow them over time, we find UPK children are also performing significantly better on the third grade assessment.