Cuyahoga County Early Childhood Education Expansion and Sustainability Plan

- Every child is ready for school on the first day of Kindergarten
Strategic Priorities
  • 4.4 Co-create a plan to sustain universal access to early childhood education
    - Every child is ready for school on the first day of Kindergarten
About this measure

This measure provides updates on major milestones and anticipated next steps associated with plans for the expansion and sustainability of early childhood education in Cuyahoga County.
Why is this important?

Access to affordable, high-quality preschool is an important step toward fostering children’s development and preparing them for kindergarten and the years beyond. Evaluations of the Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK) program have shown that UPK children enter kindergarten more prepared than their non-UPK peers, and national research has demonstrated a meaningful return on investments in high-quality early childhood education. Through its work to expand and sustain funding for the UPK program, the Office of Early Childhood (OEC) aims to improve the short- and long-term outcomes for children across Cuyahoga County.
How are we making an impact?

In 2016, Cuyahoga County Executive Budish recommended and County Council approved the addition of $10 million to the county budget to expand UPK, and challenged the private funding community to match the public investment. Private funders responded with over $12 million in support. This public/private partnership of UPK funding allowed for the doubling of the number of UPK seats from 2,000 to over 4,000 from fall 2017 through the 2020-21 program year. Sustaining funding for this expansion is a priority for OEC and the County.

One avenue for sustainable funding the OEC is exploring is a Pay For Success (PFS) approach to financing. The OEC received a grant from the U.S. Department of Education in 2016 to conduct a PFS feasibility study. The foundation of this feasibility study is a rigorous evaluation of the impact of the UPK program on children’s social and academic outcomes in the elementary school years. The results of this evaluation will provide the needed evidence to demonstrate the value of investing in the UPK  program. In addition to the PFS feasibility study, other options for sustaining UPK funding are being explored. OEC is also examining what resources would be required to expand UPK to serve all eligible children in Cuyahoga County.
Reporting Agency

Cuyahoga County Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Early Childhood
Additional Resources

Pay for Success - Urban Institute
Milestone Measure

At the end of June 2019, the OEC completed its PFS Feasibility Study. Several key findings supported moving forward with a PFS project:

  • Key stakeholders in Cuyahoga County understand the value of investing in preschool program quality and its impact on child outcomes;
  • Cuyahoga County has a clear commitment to expanding its use of outcomes-contracting; and 
  • The rigorous evaluation showed that children in UPK are more prepared for kindergarten-level instruction and perform better on the third grade reading proficiency assessment than comparable children attending preschool in high-quality non-UPK sites. 

However, despite UPK being a compelling candidate for a PFS project, the overall conclusion of the study was that PFS is not feasible for the UPK program because the County has not yet identified outcome payors. Outcome payors are entities that benefit from the positive outcomes UPK children experience and that would be willing to reinvest those savings back into the program. The feasibility study identified school districts as beneficiaries of UPK in that its superior preparation of children for kindergarten would save the districts money in remedial services.

Cleveland Municipal School District (CMSD) was identified as the key potential payor because it is the largest school district in Cuyahoga County and because its student-based budgeting system is conducive to a PFS project. However, in initial conversations with CMSD, administrators expressed hesitance to commit to reinvest savings from UPK back into the program. At the end of the grant period, the County had not yet revisited the proposal for a PFS project with CMSD.