You have questions? We have answers.

The Early Childhood Education Initiative's goal is to provide all children on Orcas with universal access to high-quality early childhood education. This ensures that families can afford tuition and that schools maintain high standards of education. Each of the schools is responsible for running its own nonprofit and must raise funds to continue operations.

Our goal is universal access. While we prioritize families who do not qualify for state subsidies but still struggle with the high cost of island living, any family enrolled in our three partner schools can discuss a gap-funding request with their school's director.

The executive directors and staff of each school work with families to assess what public assistance programs are available to them. If there are gaps in this public funding, the directors bring those requests, on a quarterly basis, to the Early Childhood Education Initiative for funding approval. Approval is almost always granted, as long as the Early Childhood Education Initiative has funds available to cover the requests.

State and federal subsidies often have strict income caps that don't account for the high cost of living on Orcas Island. As a result, public aid may only cover a small portion of weekly tuition or, in many cases, nothing at all. Additionally, some children require extra developmental support that exceeds standard funding limits. This creates a significant gap for our "working middle" families. They earn too much to qualify for state aid, but not enough to afford the full cost of high-quality early childhood education. The Early Childhood Education Initiative steps in to fill that gap.

If you are interested in learning more about Early Childhood Education Initiative funds, please speak with the executive director of the preschool that your child attends or is planning to attend.

All Early Childhood Education Initiative schools on Orcas are rated by Washington State’s Early Achievers Quality Recognition and Improvement System. This program actively reviews each school annually and provides a quality rating and steps for improvement, if needed. The scale of this rating is 1 to 5, with 5 being the best. 

The average rating of the three Early Childhood Education Initiative schools is currently 4.66 out of 5. This puts them in the top 2% of early learning facilities in Washington State and validates that the Early Childhood Education Initiative is helping our preschools fulfill the goal of providing high-quality early childhood education to children on Orcas Island.

High-quality early education is an economic driver for Orcas Island. By making childcare affordable, we allow local parents to remain in the workforce, supporting our local businesses and essential services. Studies also show that every $1 invested in early childhood education saves taxpayers up to $13 in future costs related to remedial education and public safety.

Schweinhart, L. J., Montie, J., Xiang, Z., Barnett, W. S., Belfield, C. R., & Nores, M. (2005). Lifetime effects: The HighScope Perry Preschool study through age 40. HighScope Press.

Donations made to the Early Childhood Education Initiative are pooled to support all three Early Childhood Education Initiative schools. If you wish to support a specific school, we encourage you to donate directly to Children’s House, Kaleidoscope, or Orcas Montessori School.

No. The Early Childhood Education Initiative is a community-driven initiative supported by private donations and grants. While we work closely with state standards like Early Achievers, we rely on the generosity of the Orcas community to bridge the gap that public funding doesn't cover.

Our 5- to 10-year plan is to be a well-known, self-sustained, publicly funded, countywide model that ensures equitable access to high-quality early childhood education for all children in San Juan County.