This page shows the impact of the Cuyahoga County Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK) program. Measures include:

• Children Enrolled in UPK, which shows the number of children enrolled in preschools that participate in the County’s UPK program by month,
• UPK Enrolled % of Capacity, which communicates the percent of UPK seats that were filled,
• Percent of UPK Participants by Race & Ethnicity, which shows the percent of UPK children who have been enrolled in preschools that participate in the County's UPK program by race and ethnicity by year, and
• Percent of UPK Participants Ready for Kindergarten, which shows the percent of UPK children who are ready for kindergarten. Kindergarten readiness is defined as children whose Kindergarten Readiness Assessment (KRA) scores fall into the “Demonstrating Readiness” or “Approaching Readiness” categories. These categories reflect readiness on four dimensions: language and literacy, mathematics, social foundations, and physical well-being and motor development. The population here is restricted to children who attended a UPK program for at least six months in the year before kindergarten and for whom a KRA score can be identified.

Data are reported by the Cuyahoga County Office of Early Childhood/Invest in Children on a quarterly basis.

Access to affordable, high-quality preschool is an important step toward fostering children’s development and preparing them for kindergarten and the years beyond. When children enter kindergarten ready to learn, they do better in the short term and over the long term. Being prepared to learn includes academic preparation—counting, letters, shapes, colors—as well as the social and emotional foundation for learning. The aim of the County’s UPK program is to ensure children are socially, emotionally, and academically prepared to succeed in school the moment they enter kindergarten.

• Cuyahoga Kids
• What is 2Gen? - Ascend Aspen Institute

Enrollment: 

Starting Point

• UPK Enrollment % of Capacity is based on the number of seats each site offered pre-pandemic, but the denominator only includes seats for those sites open within a given month. 
• In July 2021, % enrolled was calculated based on lower capacity levels due to the pandemic. Starting with the new UPK cycle in August 2021, OEC is reporting % enrolled based on the traditional capacity as seen pre-pandemic. For this reason, % enrolled starting August 2021 may appear lower but may be due to a larger denominator.

Kindergarten Readiness: 

Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development

• Details on race and ethnicity data reported on this page by Cuyahoga County Office of Early Childhood/Invest in Children are as follows: 
• “Black” includes non-Hispanic children identified as black or African American alone; 
• “White” consists of non-Hispanic children identified as white or Caucasian alone;
• “Asian” consists of non-Hispanic children identified as Asian or Pacific Islander alone; 
• “Hispanic” includes all children identified as Hispanic, Spanish, or Latinx, regardless of race; 
• “Native American” consists of non-Hispanic children identified as American Indian or Alaska Native alone; 
• “Multi-racial” includes children identified as having more than one race; 
• “Other” consists of children identified as some other race, children for whom race was not identified, as well as any of the preceding groups that are not displayed separately because of small sample sizes.
• Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many school districts operated in virtual or hybrid learning environments and were unable to fully administer the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment. As a result, KRA data will not be reported in 2021.

Data table abbreviated due to number of measures.  See Attachments for full data table.

The early childhood education system continues to be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. One key challenge facing the early childhood education system is a staffing shortage, which affects the ability of programs to serve the number of children and families they typically would. At the same time, many early childhood programs are also facing lower than normal enrollment even when they are fully staffed.

UPK Enrollment % of Capacity (Monthly): 80%

Children in UPK Ready for Kindergarten (Annual): 75%