Prekindergarten Enrollment Tools and Resources
Prekindergarten Enrollment Tools and Resources
The Prekindergarten Enrollment Tools and Resources offers downloadable pdfs, videos, an example enrollment campaign and more. This resource section is composed of five categories: Outreach, Family Education, Registration, Expanding Access, and Community Empowerment. Each category has specific tools and resources to expand enrollment in High-Quality prekindergarten Programs. For additional support, use the Enrollment Toolkit on the Prekindergarten Registration and Enrollment page and TEA’s Early Childhood Education Resources page, Frequently Asked Questions and other pages.
Take ideas from these tools to create engaging learning activities such as "Make and Takes" for families to use at home.
The School Tour Activity Pack includes tools for putting together a school tour for prekindergarten families (signs, flyers, activity suggestions, and tips!).
Sample Prekindergarten Social Media Language (View English Version | View Spanish Version)
In 2018, the Commit Partnership brought 13 districts together to build a campaign around prekindergarten enrollment and registration. The cohort of districts pooled resources of their marketing dollars towards a nearly $150,000 joint media buy. For example, instead of Dallas ISD and Fort Worth ISD both trying to buy airtime on the same station for PreK enrollment, there was a general commercial that both districts (and other districts) have contributed towards, which allows the districts to have a higher frequency of the commercial. This sends the message of enrolling children in a high-quality PreK program, rather than enrolling in a particular district. This only works, though, if districts have agreed to a common registration period. The districts in this cohort agreed to the first week in April. For the 2022 Prekindergarten Campaign, Commit partnered with 14 districts to engage their regional enrollment campaign to inform families of the strategic benefits of high-quality prekindergarten and options for 3- and 4-year-old children.
The resources and tools provided in this section have all been shared by the Commit Partnership, and some items in this example have been updated over the years. Those updated links are included in the example campaign. Commit’s hope is that this example and these resources will be helpful to other regions/districts who are interested in adopting this model. Through partnership, analysis, engagement, and growth, Commit developed a model for the Dallas/Fort Worth area, and these same ideas can be applied to communities and districts of all sizes to increase awareness and collaboration to promote the importance of high-quality early education in local regions/districts.
If you have any questions or need more information, please contact the Commit team including Allison Braley Allison.braley@commitpartnership.org, Chelsea Jeffery chelsea.jeffery@commitpartnership.org, or use info@earlymattersdallas.org.
The Commit Partnership has shared their project timeline which gives an idea of when they started mobilizing and activating on the various strategies. Commit is happy to talk more about how they work with districts to track their data throughout the summer so that they can target their outreach efforts more strategically as the start of school approaches. The campaign has been updated over the years, being adjusted based on the number of districts participating, the data driven results, and feedback from parents and the community. Components of the 2022 Prekindergarten Campaign include:
When implementing an enrollment campaign, remember to collect data and analyze feedback from parents and the community to make data driven adjustments for future success. Based on the 2022 Prekindergarten Campaign, Commit and the district partners adjusted for the 2023 campaign to address barriers that included lack of family awareness, limited prekindergarten seats, and teacher shortages. The tools below provide additional information about this enrollment campaign including Commit’s recent work in 2022 and 2023.
The Commit Partnership worked with a community partner to develop a radio commercial with parent and child voice, rather than using your typical district spokesman. After the commercial aired, there was a large increase in the number of texting participants and enrollment in districts. Commit recently updated their radio commercials including Spanish and English versions.
Parent testimonial videos (English and Spanish) were utilized on social media and throughout the website. A 30 second TV advertisement with concepts developed by parents was created (English and Spanish) as well. There are also longer 1-minute versions that were pushed out via social media.
Over 50 community partners were utilized to distribute district flyers to families. Partners can be anyone from a church to a WIC office. In the campaign, partners requested flyers through a survey and then Commit printed and distributed them to lower costs. What’s unique about this is that these partners were trained to be Pre-K advocates beyond just giving out flyers. For example, many of the same documents needed to apply for SNAP benefits at WIC are the same documents needed for PreK. Commit provided partners with training materials, FAQ sheets, social media guides, documentation required, etc. to help the partners be advocates who walk parents through the enrollment process. Identifying partners that could collaborate to promote prekindergarten access and enrollment is a strategy that can be replicated in any district/charter.