Upon applying for UPK and ranking up to three preferred community providers, the following process will take place:

• The applicant should receive a confirmation email at the email address provided during the application account set-up that the application was received.
• Placements for UPK seats at community providers for the 2022-2023 school year will begin in June 2022.
• If applying after seat placement has begun in June 2022, the family will hear from their first choice provider within 72 business hours (Monday through Friday) - as long as that provider has not yet filled its available seats.
• The family may have a call and/or site visit with the community provider.
• If the family chooses to enroll their child there, they would work with the provider to complete paperwork and submit required documentation. The provider would then enroll the student.
• If the family chooses not to enroll their student at the first provider or if the first provider has filled its seats, the family can be referred to one of their other preferred community providers by BPS.
• The student is not enrolled until the family completes the enrollment process with the community provider. Boston Public Schools staff cannot complete the enrollment process; enrollment is between the family and the chosen community provider. Parents and caregivers can reach out at any time to BPS UPK staff if they have questions on the status of their application or if they would like to re-rank their provider choices by emailing upk@bostonpublicschools.org.

Families of children who live in the City of Boston are eligible. Boston Universal Pre-K was launched to serve 4-year-olds (age as of September 1). The program has begun to expand to gradually serve a limited number of 3-year-olds (age as of September 1). At the time of application, the caregiver will be required to submit documentation including proof of residency. Families whose primary residence is outside of Boston are not eligible; Boston Universal Pre-K is a publicly funded program by the City of Boston and only families who are residents in the city are eligible. Families living outside Boston are able to apply to enroll their child for pre-k at any of the community providers in the Boston Universal Pre-K network by contacting them directly; however, the family must pay privately or have an alternate payment option, as UPK funding only applies to families who reside in Boston.

The City of Boston provides funding to community providers, allowing Boston Universal Pre-K to be accessible in more locations around the city. Pre-k at both BPS classrooms and community providers use the Boston Public Schools Focus on Pre-K curriculum, which is part of the Focus on Early Learning curricula series for grades pre-k through 2. This is a nationally recognized curriculum developed by Boston Public Schools. Pre-k options in school-based classrooms are tied to where in the city a family lives. For community provider classrooms, there are no geography restrictions other than Boston residency; a family can choose a community provider site near a caregiver’s workplace rather than near home, for instance. We believe that there is “no wrong door” and that families can make the choice of pre-k setting that is best for their families based on physical location, services needed, and other factors.

You should plan to spend 15 minutes completing the online UPK application. 

No. Boston UPK follows the policy of Boston Public Schools. September 1 is the cut-off date for student’s age for eligibility.

Yes - some UPK community providers offer these services. If you are seeking to enroll your child at a program which offers any of these services, please check their profile on the community provider site listings page to confirm that a particular provider provides these wraparound services. Please note wraparound services - like before-school, after-school, and summer care - are not covered by Boston UPK (which provides free tuition for families for 6.5 hours/180 days) and therefore a family may be responsible for payment for these wraparound services, which are considered non-UPK hours.

Yes, if a community provider provides any of these services and accepts subsidies and/or vouchers, you are able to use your voucher.

Registration for pre-k in Boston Public Schools classrooms is through BPS Welcome Services, who manages school registration. Registration for pre-k at community providers is decentralized because BPS works with 20+ organizations and 30+ site locations - who are independent organizations funded by the City of Boston - and the community provider must take the action of enrolling the UPK student at their organization.

Community-based providers are a part of the Boston Universal Pre-K network, which is a partnership with the City of Boston and Boston Public Schools. Your child will have a great school year at a community provider, benefitting from Boston's high-quality Focus on Pre-K curriculum and highly trained teachers. If your child is four years old as of September 1 and enrolled in pre-k, the child is eligible for kindergarten (K2) the following year in Boston Public Schools. (K2 is for students who will be five years old as of September 1 of a school year).

Our team will work with you to begin to transition your child and family to Boston Public Schools for kindergarten (K2) in January of each year, when Boston Public Schools opens registration for the following school year. As a UPK family enrolled at a community provider, your family can take advantage of the Connector System. The Connector gives priority to UPK children attending community providers during the BPS lottery assignment for K2 in certain schools. There is no guaranteed connection between a community provider setting and a particular BPS school for K2; rather, the Connector gives families of UPK children a higher probability of admission to specific schools for K2. To be eligible for the UPK to BPS K2 Connector system, families must register their child during the annual BPS K2 priority registration period as indicated by BPS Welcome Services. The Connector system aims to ensure continuity of the kindergarten experience from UPK in a community provider setting to K2 in a BPS school.

View a map of the current Connector schools here. Connector schools are subject to change.

An applicant can call the UPK community child care provider directly where they wish to enroll a child, where a member of their staff can assist with enrolling the child, or the applicant can call the Boston UPK enrollment team for help completing the application over the phone at 617-635-1507. 

Do not attempt to create a new account. Please call the Boston UPK enrollment team for assistance with your account at 617-635-1507.

All Boston UPK community providers are following COVID-19 health and safety protocols from the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care (EEC). Recent recommendations from EEC can be found here. 

In 2005, then Boston Mayor Tom Menino made a commitment for preschool for all 4-year-olds in Boston. In 2009, demand for pre-k began to exceed the number of seats allocated within Boston Public Schools. As a result, in 2013, Boston became a recipient of the Preschool Expansion Grant, creating a partnership between Boston Public Schools, the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care, and community-based organizations in Boston. The Preschool Expansion Grant continued until 2019. 

In 2015, then Boston Mayor Marty Walsh began prioritizing quality – not just access – to preschool. In 2019 Mayor Walsh announced the $15M Quality Pre-K Fund - a trust - to provide the startup funding for the remaining seats estimated to be needed - in community provider settings. The $15M came from the City General fund and represents roughly 10% of the new funding the City had available in FY20; this came from existing property tax and other local revenue sources. Boston Public Schools is the lead agent for Boston UPK in managing the trust and issuing grants to community providers who operate as Boston UPK partner sites. Boston UPK is funded through the City’s Pre-K Fund, Boston Public Schools district funds, and contributions from public and private philanthropy. Boston Public Schools increases its contribution each year to ensure sustainability of the pre-k model in Boston.

[Updated March 2023] Two invitations for bids (IFBs) open in March 2023 on the City of Boston supplier portal. One IFB specific to community-based providers (i.e. nonprofit and for-profit organizations, early education providers, private schools, religious schools) opens on March 20, 2023 at 12:00 PM. A second IFB specific to a new expansion for family child care providers opens on Monday, March 27, 2023 at 12:00 PM. Bids must be submitted through the city supplier portal or in hard copy via mail by Monday, April 24, 2023 at 12:00 PM. Please refer to the update on the BPS Department of Early Childhood website here for details on upcoming virtual information sessions and instructions for applying.