New 4K program options create difficult decisions for some child care providers

STEVENS POINT, Wis. (WSAW) - Parents of 4-year-olds will have more free 4K program options as the Department of Children and Families launches a new program putting child care providers in charge.

In the latest budget, the state approved $65 million to launch the Get Kids Ready program. Feb. 1 is the deadline for providers to show interest in offering the program.

The decision has not come easily for many centers as they navigate potential financial impacts and long-standing relationships with school districts. Providers and schools expressed concern that the additional 4K program could put them in competition for kids, as the reimbursement to operate these programs relies on enrollment.

“To say that we’re not concerned about the potential financial impact wouldn’t be accurate; we are concerned,” Chris Nyman, assistant superintendent for Stevens Point Area Public School District, said.

The district receives 60% reimbursement per student from the state for students enrolled as 4K students. If community partners elect to partner with DCF instead, the district no longer gets that reimbursement.

“That is a loss of revenue for our district,” Nyman explained. “I guess, we balance that with we’re also not paying a contract amount to those partners.”

“Every center had a difficult decision to make, and everybody had to do what they thought was best, and it’s going to be a learning curve all around for all of us this year with the changes in the program,” Amy Kurkowski, center director at Trinity Learning Center & Preschool, expressed.

Providers have several opportunities to opt out of the program, but they cannot join for the next school year after Sunday. The maximum per child per year providers could get back is $7,045, which is generally higher than what they get reimbursed from districts. However, that final per-child reimbursement is dependent on how many children are enrolled around the state.

“If there are more kids than (about) 9,000 or slots signed up, we’re not going to be able to pay the maximum amount. We have to prorate it,” DCF Secretary Jeff Pertl said. “If there’s (sic) 18,000 kids, it would be half as much money. There’d only be $3,500 a kid available.”

Providers must share how many slots they plan to offer. Following the Feb. 1 deadline, DCF will publicly post a list of providers with plans to offer the program on Feb. 15. A second deadline in May will allow providers to opt out if they decide the funding level is not financially feasible based on the state’s estimated reimbursement rate.

Pertl has addressed concerns with schools and providers, saying there are opportunities for new ways to collaborate. He also believes that while there may be some shifting of children from district-based programs to child care-led programs, it will balance out.

Pertl thinks providers who do not have a district program nearby — including in-home family providers — may be the best situated to take on this new 4K program.

“We have a lot of, frankly, educators and highly educated folks who are running in-home care who can provide instruction of a different kind for the kids that they’re caring for,” Pertl said.

The Department of Public Instruction would not agree to an interview but provided context via email. Communications Director, Chris Bucher, said the program serves as another option for families in the absence of full-day 4K, supporting the transition into school settings by providing developmentally appropriate opportunities to develop early literacy and math skills, and social-emotional and behavioral skills.

Weighing options, navigating relationships

For about two decades, families in Wisconsin have been able to enroll their 4-year-olds in 4K free of charge. The Stevens Point Area School District has been offering 4K since that time, both through its elementary schools and in partnership with community child care providers.

Trinity Learning Center and Preschool has been one of its 4K partners for the past 16 years.

“It’s been a great partnership,” said Kurkowski. “They provide, like, the busing for transportation for families to be able to send their children here without having to transport them. And then they have a great team of special education teachers that come in for students that (sic) need it.”

The center currently serves 18 students in its 4K program for the 2025-26 school year and receives about $2,900 per student annually from the district to provide two half-day programs four days a week. Kurkowski explained that reimbursement pays for the 4K teacher, the teaching assistants, and some supplies for the program.

With the introduction of the Get Kids Ready program and the school district’s response for the following school year, Kurkowski said deciding what to do was difficult.

District expands to full-day programs

Understanding the intense child care need, the Stevens Point district is offering full-day programs for the first time next school year, in addition to its half-day programs. The full-day option came from survey data collected last fall, showing overwhelming community interest.

“Are we meeting a need, a child care need, by offering a full-day option for families? Absolutely,” Nyman said. “And were we really surprised by the overwhelming response we got to indicate there was a strong interest in full day? We weren’t surprised.”

Sherrie Stanczyk, early learning principal for Stevens Point Area Public School District, said the district modeled the full-day programming off existing half-day programs using the same curriculum but with enriched and extended opportunities.

“We’re excited to be able to really focus on music, art, PE, potentially library experiences within the 4K classroom itself,” Stanczyk explained. “That extended time just really allows us to be able to do that.”

Four district sites will offer full-day programming: Plover Whiting Elementary, McKinley Elementary, Bannock Elementary, and Kennedy Elementary. Community sites offering full-day programs include the YMCA’s central location and Little Scholars.

Kurkowski weighed the pros and cons of both the district’s 4K program and Get Kids Ready. They were not confident that they would be able to compete with the district’s new full-day program, given parents’ need for child care and the costs families have to pay for child care outside of 4K. Ultimately, the center valued the district’s transportation services, special education support, and collaboration opportunities.

“Going with the Get Kids Ready, we would have been on our own,” Kurkowski said.

Trinity will transition to Monday through Friday programming from 8:15 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. They plan to charge families about $9 per hour for before and after care, and $65 for days school is not in session, instead of full weekly child care tuition for the other part of the half day when 4-year-olds are not in 4K.

“With it transitioning to all day, financially, it will make an impact on our child care, but we really felt that it was our best way to keep the 4K program going for everybody here,” Kurkowski said.

Child care centers operate on thin margins

Kurkowski emphasized that child care centers are not making large profits despite charging families significant amounts.

“We’re making enough to keep our doors open so we can be here for families,” Kurkowski said.

Trinity charges families $300 to $387 per week per child, depending on age. The center pays teachers between $13 and $20 per hour, with most earning $13 to $16 per hour.

“They definitely deserve to be paid a lot more. And that’s where any extra funding that we could get would be nice to pay the very hardworking teachers what they deserve,” Kurkowski said.

Bridge funding loss creates additional pressure

Child care providers face another financial challenge as the Child Care Bridge Program (the state’s adoption of pandemic Child Care Counts) funding ends in June.

“That’ll be another hit on early childhood programs when we lose that funding,” Kurkowski said. “We are advocating for funding, whether it comes through the state or the federal level.”

While the center has raised rates since the pandemic, it did not raise rates this year due to family financial hardships. Rates for families would hit around $400 per week if they did.

“When I send those bills out each month, it’s hard for me to hand those to families, and knowing what they’re paying. And most of them are paying, possibly, half of a salary into child care,” Kurkowski said.

Get Kids Ready meant to address unintended child care impacts from traditional 4K

The new program aims to address an unintended consequence of traditional 4K expansion, according to DCF Secretary Jeff Pertl.

“Moving the 4-year-olds into schools is great for parents because you don’t have to pay tuition,” Pertl explained. “But I think one of the trade-offs that we didn’t really understand on the education side as we were building out 4K, was this unintended impact on child care, which is pulling the 4-year-olds out, really destabilized the child care field.”

Older children, such as 4-year-olds, have the most flexible teacher-to-child ratios in child care centers, making them crucial for balancing finances since infants and toddlers require very tight ratios of 1-to-4, making them expensive to operate.

“It’s almost impossible to run a center with only the youngest kids,” Pertl said. “And as they moved out, it really not only broke the model, but it’s part of the reason the prices are going up so much.”

Program requirements and curriculum differences

Both 4K programs follow the Wisconsin Model Early Learning Standards, which were developed by the state departments of Public Instruction, Children and Families, and Health Services. However, the district model is governed by the Department of Public Instruction, requires student assessments in subjects like math and reading, and teachers must have a bachelor’s degree in education.

“A goal of that programming is for children to have access to high-quality instruction,” said Stanczyk.

The district also has to offer services for children with special needs, whereas Get Kids Ready does not have that requirement.

The Get Kids Ready model requires teachers to have an associate’s or bachelor’s degree, but does not specify a subject area.

Pertl said the programs may look identical in terms of curriculum; oversight, teacher requirements, and ongoing assessments are what differentiate them.

Community partners making decisions

Stanczyk said one community 4K partner has already notified the district they will not be partnering for the upcoming school year, though she has not heard officially from other current partners about their decisions.

“I really appreciate working in collaboration with our community partners,” Stanczyk said. “It’s allowed us to support students that (sic) need care, but also reach the students and the families earlier.”

The collaboration allows the district to share information between child care providers and receiving elementary school buildings, providing insight into students’ progress over the course of the school year.

“Having more competing systems, I think, eliminate some of that smooth transition into kindergarten if, indeed, they’re not adhering to the same curriculum,” Nyman said.

Stanczyk highlighted differences in supervision between the programs. As early learning principal, Stanczyk supports and monitors curriculum quality and provides feedback and coaching for teachers in the district program.

State official sees collaboration opportunities

Despite tensions, Pertl believes the program will create new opportunities for collaboration between districts and providers.

“We see some school districts moving to full-day programs,” Pertl stated. “We see others that are like, ‘we’re going to run in the morning, why don’t you run in the afternoon, and then the parents don’t have to pay, and they can get additional supports and instruction,’ and they’re figuring out how to work together and collaborate through that process.”

Children can be enrolled in both types of 4K programs simultaneously. Pertl believes the funding and balance between district and child care providers will ultimately equal out, but he understands the concerns especially in the first year.

“For the most part, these are going to be kids who were already in child care as three-year-olds,” Pertl said. “There are thousands and thousands of kids right now who are four years old who are not in 4K that we can help bring in supports into this system.”

Benefits of 4K participation

“Children come to us as 4-year-olds already having 80% to 90% of their brain developed,” Stanczyk said. “The amount of growth that we see in one year is incredible and really sets the foundation for their success in K-12 and beyond.”

While both the district and child care providers noted that, regardless of whether parents elect to place their 4-year-old in the school-led or the child care-led programs, there is a lot of evidence showing the benefits of getting kids into 4K.

“They come in with a joy of learning. We get to see that. We get to send them off to kindergarten still being excited,” Stanczyk said. “That’s our hope, that they’re excited to transition to kindergarten with the skills that they need to be successful as well.”

“It provides great readiness for students, not just on the academic side of learning, but also on the social-emotional learning side,” Nyman explained. Within the school-based model, “(i)t provides students an opportunity to begin to build relationships with staff in the building where potentially their child will attend school for the next seven years.”

The district designed its full-day program to minimize transitions for students, with preferential registration for students in attendance zones for specific buildings.

“There is ample research available to indicate that minimizing transitions for kids is a good thing,” Nyman said. “And we feel like this is one step toward minimizing the number of transitions we ask them to make.”

Kurkowski noted the name sentiment within child care, especially for families with other young children who are able to keep siblings in the same building.

Broader child care investment strategy

Pertl emphasized that Get Kids Ready is part of a larger strategy to address child care affordability and access issues affecting Wisconsin families.

“It is very hard to be a young family and thrive today,” Pertl said. “Housing is super expensive. It’s 30% to 40% of people’s household budgets. Child care is typically running 20% to 30% a kid. That math doesn’t work.”

Some providers question the longevity of the Get Kids Ready program. Pertl assured that this is not a pilot program and is written into law as a permanent program, though funding levels could be adjusted in future budgets. He said the legislature will have to evaluate the demand for this program and adjust funding accordingly in future budgets.

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