BOSTON UNIVERSAL PRE-KINDERGARTEN

Welcome! We’re excited you’re considering preschool for your child. Preschool is also known as Pre-Kindergarten. In Boston, we have Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK), which is a mixed delivery portfolio of programs funded by the City of Boston offering high-quality choices for children ages three and four living in the city at no cost to families. UPK is a 6.5-hour school day for 180 days per year.

The Boston UPK program is one of the strongest in the nation. Research shows children who attend are more prepared for kindergarten in the areas of early math, reading, and social-emotional development.

The Boston UPK mixed delivery model offers the same high quality programming in a variety of settings:

1. Boston Public Schools (BPS) - known as K0 (for 3-year-olds) and K1 (for 4-year-olds)
2. Community-based providers (Update - March 1, 2023: Applications are now being accepted for the 2023-2024 school year).
3. Family child care providers (to be added for the 2023-2024 school year)

Boston’s UPK program was first offered at Boston Public Schools and has since expanded to community-based providers and will soon expand to family child care providers in an effort to make UPK accessible in more locations around the city and better serve families.

All UPK programs - whether offered at BPS schools, at community-based providers, or family child care providers - are standardized and quality based. They are all working to implement the Boston Public Schools Focus on Pre-K curriculum, which is part of the BPS Focus on Early Learning curricula series for grades pre-k through 2. This is a nationally recognized curriculum developed by Boston Public Schools.