Pre-K Information for Schools

Participating in Keystone STARS – a program of Pennsylvania’s Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) – is a great way to scale your school's pre-k programs. It is the state's quality improvement program to support and communicate the level of quality in early and school-age care and education programs to the wider community. STARS rated Pre-K programs (in particular STAR 3 and 4) have opportunities to apply for financial support or participate in other initiatives, like PHL-Pre-K.

STARS programs can receive 1 to 4 STARS

  • STAR 1 – Licensed by the state, focused on health and safety
  • STAR 2 – Required elements demonstrating a program’s commitment to quality and Continuous Quality Improvement
  • STAR 3 and STAR 4 – Points based, program observations required

Visit The Pennsylvania Key Website to learn more about Keystone STARS and review more information about providing quality early learning opportunities.

Check out our Certificate of Compliance Guide for a checklist to help you get started with certification.

Your school can be a Universal Pre-K provider. Low to middle-income families can access your quality Pre-K program for FREE. To learn more, review PHL Pre-K resources.

If your Pre-K program is STARS rated, your program may be eligible to access the Child Care Facility Fund, which provides support to high quality early childhood education providers located in Philadelphia for the maintenance and improvement of their facilities to maintain a high level STAR rating.

Fund for Quality – This initiative supports high-quality early care and education providers by helping to expand their services to reach more low-income families. If your program is STARS rated and in high-poverty/ high-need areas, consider applying to this fund to scale your Pre-K program.

CSFP partner schools offer quality K-8 grade education with many providing great early education programs. To help schools reach more pre-k families, CSFP is working with experts to help partner schools have licensed pre-k programs to access state and local subsidies. If you are interested in learning more, please contact our education team at prekproject@csfphiladelphia.org

Check out our Certificate of Compliance Guide for a checklist to help you get started with certification.