Starting this week, a new wave of New Orleans children will have the opportunity to enter the school system for the first time through an early childhood education program. But thousands could slip through the cracks, a new report shows.
Out of 5,000 applications submitted through the New Orleans Common Application system last year, less than 40% were actually completed and processed, according to the Education Research Alliance for New Orleans at Tulane University.
And as of December, over 1,100 seats remained open despite long waitlists at schools and early childhood education centers across the city.
Many who applied for open seats thought they had completed their applications but actually hadn’t verified all of their documentation, parents told the New Orleans Collaborative for Early Childhood Research in a report published in December.
Unlike free K-12 public education, early childhood education and pre-K programs are funded by a mix of local, federal and state programs that allow them to be free for low-income families. That includes federally funded Head Start programs, state-funded pre-K in public schools, state-funded child care center seats, and New Orleans’ newly expanded City Seats program funded through a new voter-approved tax millage.
All of them have different eligibility and documentation requirements, processed through a single application website, which can be confusing for parents and guardians.
“It’s so much you have to do just to get your kid into school,” said Olivia Aubry, whose daughter is now in kindergarten.
“It gets confusing because there’s different versions of the same school,” she said. Parents select from a long list of schools that are listed more than once, for each funding program they support. Schools are also repeated if they have different campus locations.
Aubry said it’s difficult trying to decide which schools to pick because there’s no information about them listed when applying.
“You don’t realize they have all these other schools out there that are really good schools,” she said.
The school system has since improved the selection process, debuting a school finder tool with performance grades and other information in 2022.
Income thresholds vary between programs as well, making it difficult for applicants to understand what they do and do not qualify for.
“The centralized system is really shining a big spotlight on how misaligned these requirements in documentation are,” said Lindsay Weixler, co-director of the Collaborative for Early Childhood Research. She said 1,900 out of 5,000 applications were submitted without documents and 1,200 had partial documentation or were deemed ineligible.
Some programs require documents like proof of custody if the person completing the application isn’t on the birth certificate, two proofs of residency and two or four consecutive pay stubs for all household members contributing financially.
Documentation difficulties can arise, for instance, if families have moved around frequently or receive most of their income in cash.
“Gathering all of the required documents was difficult and tedious,” said Laurielle Stansberry-Castillo, a mom of two who said it took a few weeks to get everything in before the window closed. Her daughter started pre-K this year under one of several income-based pre-K programs.
“Early childhood education can be expensive when many families live check-to-check down here,” she said.
On average, nonsubsidized childcare costs Louisiana families $17,000 a year for two children, according to a 2022 report by the Louisiana Policy Institute for Children. Transportation issues and a lack of accessible childcare facilities are also barriers.
How the process works
The application is typically six to eight weeks. This year, it opens Thursday, Jan. 4, through Feb. 21 at https://nolapublicschools.com. The application window for K-12 is already open and runs through Jan. 19.
Since 2012, New Orleans Public Schools has used a centralized enrollment system, formerly called OneApp, where families submit a single application that matches students with schools based on school priorities, capacity and family preference.
The enrollment system, operated by Nola Public Schools, allows families to rank their top school choices — eight for early childhood and 12 for grades K-12.
Families that don’t receive a placement can try again during a second open enrollment period after the first round of seats are announced, but by that time space is limited and waitlisting is common. The alternative, paying the full cost, is out of reach for many.
“In the spring of 2023, NOLA-PS introduced a new online application designed to make applying and verifying eligibility easier for parents,” the report said. “However, childcare center directors report that families still struggle to complete the process and often seem unaware that their application is not considered complete, despite the new system’s improvements.”
Superintendent Avis Williams said while the new process is an improvement, she recalled it was an issue that has been consistently brought up during family meetings in the early days of taking office in 2022.
“What I know for sure is that our children who are the furthest away from opportunity are in households that are most vulnerable and are going to have even more challenges than what the data says,” she said during a recent Education Research Alliance panel.
Early childhood advocates say that high quality education for children aged four and younger increases socio-emotional skills and learning readiness in kindergarten. It also benefits the economy by allowing parents to work or attend school.
Williams added that the district will continue to pay close attention and make improvements that are fair and equitable to all families.
As part of the panel, Weixler said any required documentation should be simplified to the “smallest possible number,” and programs should work together to align what’s required from parents.
Tanya Bryant, CEO of ReNew Schools, said expanding application timelines also are important to parents so children have multiple opportunities to get a placement.
“We have so many kids who aren't attending school because of barriers in the process,” Bryant said. “We can walk our eighth graders through because we know who they are. But we don't know who the pre-K students are because this is their first time stepping into school.”