LAUSD reports rising preschool enrollment, highlights targeted outreach and a push to reach two-year-olds

Los Angeles Unified School District officials told the Children and Families and Early Education Committee that preschool enrollment has rebounded since the pandemic and that new outreach is helping reach families earlier.

Renee Amosita of the district’s Early Education Division said the district operates 89 early education centers, 96 preschool programs on elementary campuses, transitional kindergarten (TK) programs and four infant centers. She reported that TK enrollment exceeded the district’s 30,000 goal (data through April 15) and provided an age breakdown for preschool enrollment, including 1,025 two-year-olds, 3,277 three-year-olds and 4,663 four-year-olds.

“We started this year with a goal to reach 30,000 TK students and we exceeded it,” Amosita said, pointing to bilingual short-form social videos and community canvassing as especially effective outreach tools.

The presentation included regional capacity figures: as of May the district reported roughly 10,912 early-education enrollees with about 1,173 open seats districtwide. Amosita said regional vacancy rates were East 88% (471 slots), North 94% (186 slots), South 89% (362 slots) and West 91% (154 slots).

Committee members asked for clearer visibility into where seats remain. “If a family finds a wait list at their neighborhood center, are principals encouraged to refer them to nearby programs?” asked Board member Franklin. Amosita replied that centers share weekly enrollment and wait-list information with nearby schools, and that the district has produced flyers and campus banners to steer families to alternative nearby options.

Members and staff described several steps intended to reduce friction for families: targeted mailers to low-enrollment ZIP codes, redesigned campus banners, billboards and transit ads, bilingual 30-second reels that increased web traffic, community outreach at fairs and parks, and principal trainings to update school websites and social media.

The district is also digitizing enrollment paperwork. Amosita said required documents remain a birth certificate, immunization records, a physical exam and district forms; for families seeking subsidized care the district asks for employment or school verification. The district has created fillable PDFs as an interim step and is working toward a fuller online enrollment workflow.

Board members recommended additional changes to boost access. Mr. Melvin suggested standardizing program names (for example, referring to campus-based programs as “preschool” to reduce confusion) and adding a capacity heat map or an executive dashboard so parents and administrators can see vacancies by neighborhood. Several members urged focus groups and closer tracking of which outreach channels bring families in.

Amosita set an operational target for full-year programs to reach 100% enrollment by August, acknowledging a common June–July dip as children transition to kindergarten.

Next steps noted by the committee included continuing the geo-targeted media campaign, piloting dashboards or app displays showing local availability, accelerating digitization of forms, and expanding messaging that two-year-olds are eligible and do not need to be toilet-trained to enroll.

The committee did not take formal votes at the meeting; members said they will fold feedback into the division’s ongoing enrollment efforts.