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Challenges and progress in matching families with preferred program choices
1:42:49
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137 sec
Daniel Weisberg, First Deputy Chancellor, provides a comprehensive explanation of the challenges and progress in matching families with their preferred early childhood education program choices. He discusses the goals, achievements, and ongoing efforts to improve the allocation process.
- The goal is to provide not just a seat, but the seat that a family is looking for when they need it
- Majority of families received one of their stated choices in the largest 3K program to date
- Improvements made in reducing waitlist numbers over the summer
- Acknowledgment of the stress families experience when not getting their first choice
- Ongoing efforts to shrink the population of families not getting their preferred choices
- Recognition that some high-demand sites will always have waitlists
- Commitment to continuous improvement in the matching process
Daniel Weisberg
1:42:49
Thank you, thank you Chair, appreciate that.
1:42:52
Yeah, listen, the goal, whether it's a new RFP or just within the current constraints we have, is to absolutely serve the community and the demands that they have, which obviously shifts even month to month, day to day.
1:43:04
We want to get as close as we can to providing not just a seat, but the seat that a family is looking for when they're looking for it.
1:43:11
You know, that's not easy to do.
1:43:13
I'm actually proud that in a situation this past year where we had by far and away the largest three ks program we've ever had, the vast, vast majority of families did get one of their choices, one of their stated choices, and that's where we want to be.
1:43:32
Now that doesn't help.
1:43:34
Totally hear you.
1:43:35
That's not a consolation for a family that didn't get one of their choices in the initial round.
1:43:42
We learned something throughout the summer with the wait list process, getting that number down from thousands down to under under a thousand.
1:43:49
And so we think it'll go smoother this year.
1:43:52
I just wanna, you know, insert a note of caution.
1:43:55
I know you know this well.
1:43:56
Same is true in high school, same is true in middle school, same is true in kindergarten.
1:44:00
There are probably always gonna be very high demand sites, whether it's schools or CBOs where they've just got an amazing program, amazing leader, everybody wants to go there.
1:44:11
We can't assure that there's not gonna be waitlists somewhere.
1:44:15
There's always gonna be waitlists somewhere.
1:44:16
The question is, can we make sure if you don't get into that first choice you get into the second or the third choice?
1:44:22
That's where we're trying to go.
1:44:23
Slowly we are making progress on that.
1:44:26
That's why we have the biggest three ks program we've ever had in terms of enrollment, not just applications, is because we're able to serve better.
1:44:35
Next year we'll be better again.
1:44:36
Everybody will get an offer, and the number of families that get an offer that's too far away or it's a program they really don't want, that's gonna shrink.
1:44:45
Over time, hopefully, we're gonna get that as close as we can to zero.
1:44:48
But I just wanna set expectations.
1:44:50
I've been there.
1:44:51
You know?
1:44:51
You know I've I've I've got kids who who came through the system.
1:44:54
It's a stressful thing if you don't get your first choice, or you're worried about whether you're gonna get any of your choices.
1:45:00
We wanna shrink that population as much as we can.
1:45:03
I'm not sure we're ever gonna get it to zero, but we're going to try.