Seattle Mayor Harrell Announces Preschool Program Expansion
Reporting by Cesar Canizales
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell announced Wednesday the expansion of the Seattle Preschool Program, a program for low-income residents. He was welcomed to the school by a chorus of children and teachers.
Harrell made the announcement at La Escuelita, a bilingual school in Columbia City, one of the seven new expansion classrooms in the program.
“We know what this means. This is the upstream work that quite frankly, as leaders of the city, we have the honor and privilege to do. This is medicine for the soul, as I like to think of it,” said Harrell “This is when we go upstream and we look at a lot of the issues we're facing today in this in the city and we're saying where can we go upstream to do the real work.”
The program supports the creation of high-quality learning classrooms for 3- and 4-year-old children. It helps them gain pre-academic skills and supports their social-emotional growth and prepares them for kindergarten.
Rosa Aguilar, who has one child at La Escuelita, said she was happy to see this level of support from the city.
“It is very important for me that they are here. And I also realize they are here to support our dual language program because being bilingual is very important for our children’s lives,” said Aguilar.
Seattle Department of Education and Early Learning Director Dwane Chappelle stressed the importance of ensuring that children are ready for their academic careers.
“There's nothing like knowing that our young scholars have the foundation to step into elementary school so that they can hit those milestones on time, whether it's reading at a third grade-grade level, because all of that leads to upward trajectory for them being successful when they graduate from high school,” said Chappelle.
The addition of La Escuelita to the program brings the total number of dual-language classrooms to 28. The program serves children in eight different languages, including Spanish, Cantonese, Somali, Vietnamese and American Sign Language.
“Just being able to have children of different cultures sit across from each other and speak in one language is impactful,” said Marisol Masso Lincoln, Executive Director of La Escuelita. “But then to be able to open that door and have them speak in multiple languages, Spanish and English, it connects them, and it allows children to have those cross-cultural skills.”
Harrell said the new classrooms bring the total to 89 preschool sites across the city. The program serves about 2,200 children with the goal of increasing that number to 2,500 by 2026.
“They deserve what we're trying to do. They are worthy. They are investments. They are gems,” said Harrell.
The program is funded through levy funds and was launched in partnership with the Department of Education and preschool providers. Harrell said the city will provide leadership for the rest of the state.
“Funding is always a challenge. You know, this is from Levy dollars. So this is the city collectively saying we believe in brain development at an early age,” Harrell said. “So Seattle will lead the way. We are the largest city in this state. That's what we should do. This works.”
The program is open to Seattle residents and is free for most families. The program uses a sliding scale to determine rates for higher-income households.
Families can learn more and apply for the program by going to seattle.gov/applySPP
