Teacher Talk: Get to Know Durham PreK!

August 4, 2022

Welcome to Durham PreK! Whether you are joining a Durham PreK classroom for the first time or if you've been teaching in a Durham PreK classroom since our first year, we are so excited to work with you this school year! The Durham community is lucky to have each of you teaching its young children and building relationships with their families! You are likely familiar with the Durham PreK policies, goals, and collaborative efforts of the PreK Partners, but this article dives deeper into the development of Durham PreK and the people that make it possible!

Durham PreK developed out of

research-based activism from early childhood experts in Durham,
local officials committed to ensuring better futures for Durham’s youngest children, and
supportive neighbors and community members like you!

Local early childhood experts and community stakeholders formed the Durham Community Early Education/Preschool Task Force in 2016 after resolutions were passed by elected officials from Durham City Council, Durham Public Schools, and the Durham County Commission. The members and other volunteers worked together to create recommendations for Durham to consider as they began planning for a local pre-K program. These recommendations included:

Expanding access to all four-year-olds (and eventually three-year-olds) in Durham County
Increasing per-child spending to support high quality teaching and classrooms
Creating a team specifically for the management of a local pre-K program
Committing to quality early childhood practices, including family engagement, professional development, mentoring, teacher education, and more.

In 2017, after the Task Force presented their report, Durham County contracted with Child Care Services Association to study the availability of and need for local early childhood programs. This Supply and Demand study determined there were over 9,200 preschool-age children in Durham County with about 4,300 (about 47%) living in low-income households. However, there were more than two age-eligible children for each public seat in a licensed classroom. The availability of 4- or 5-star high-quality seats was even lower.

The limited access to care in Durham County became a priority for the County Commissioners, and the study showed the community would support it, too. 97% of families felt it was important to make sure quality preschool was available, 94% felt it was important for Durham County to fund quality preschool, and 90% were willing to contribute to quality preschool in Durham through monthly local taxes.

In 2018, Durham County contracted with CCSA to manage Durham PreK in a collaborative approach with Durham Public Schools, Durham's Partnership for Children, and Durham Head Start. Since then, the Durham PreK team has grown in number and in strength.

Over the years, the Durham PreK Governance Committee has guided the development of the program's policies and strategies to assure that the classrooms provie the highest quality instruction. The Quality Subcommittee has developed quality standards for family engagement at sites, an equity plan for Durham's public preschool sites, and are currently studying methods for expanding wrap-around care (before and after school services). The PreK Partners (Child Care Services Association, Durham’s Partnership for Children, Durham Public Schools, and Families & Communities Rising, Inc.) work collaboratively throughout the school year on the application development and launch, child enrollment, program quality, outreach, marketing, and more. You can read more about members of the Durham PreK team on the Governance Committee page, the Quality Subcommittee page, and the Meet the Team page! Keep an eye out on social media for an upcoming “Meet the Partners” campaign on social media!

In the spring of 2019, Durham PreK opened 5 inaugural classrooms in 4 local child care centers. Since then, the universal application has expanded to offer child placements at 20 Durham Public Schools sites, 6 Durham Head Start sites, and 21 community-based sites. Durham PreK is proud to support the Durham community by expanding access to high quality pre-K, prioritizing highly-qualified staff and equitable teacher compensation, and reducing costs for families. We can't wait for the school year to start!

If you are looking for more information or helpful resources, the following pages may be helpful: