Community and technical colleges statewide are trying to maintain their cooperative preschools, where parents work and learn alongside their children, once major rule changes by the State Board of Community and Technical Colleges take effect in July.

In the Parent Education Program, which got its start in the 1930s, preschools serve as laboratories where parents join their children one day a week. As classroom teachers lead the lessons for kids, college faculty teach evidence-based parenting skills to the preschoolers’ parents, including positive discipline techniques, nutrition and sleep tips, and ways to boost kids’ learning through play.

The program is offered at about a dozen schools statewide, and serves 4,500 families, including at North Seattle, South Seattle, Bellevue, and Edmonds colleges, Shoreline Community College, and Lake Washington Technical College.

Parents earn college credits through the program, which has been classified as workforce development. Starting in July, however, colleges will only be able to qualify for state enrollment funding for students in programs that lead to degrees or other credentials.

While some colleges currently offer credentials for parent education, at the colleges that do not, parent education will be considered “continuing education” and not count for state enrollment funding.

Colleges with parent education programs that offer certificates will also be required to demonstrate that their programs lead “to an industry-defined workforce pathway,” said Rachelle Alongi, spokesperson for the State Board of Community and Technical Colleges.

The changes have sent colleges scrambling to figure out how to change their programs to meet the new requirements, like creating certificate tracks for parent education and changing tuition models — and whether that’s even feasible.

At Shoreline Community College, “maintaining Parent Education in its current form will not be financially viable under the new state framework,” said Cat Chiappa, college spokesperson. Chiappa said Shoreline is working with the state board and faculty to determine what changes the college can make to preserve its popular cooperative preschools.

“No final decisions have been made, and we remain committed to carefully evaluating options that balance program access, affordability, and long-term sustainability,” Chiappa said.

The changes will prevent schools like North Seattle College from waiving tuition charges for the program, as it has long done to keep costs down for parents. The college offers 40 cooperative preschool classes at 11 sites across Seattle, including one for homeless families at Mary’s Place, and a Spanish-immersion program operated in collaboration with Villa Comunitaria.

Low-income parents currently pay a minimum of $50 per quarter for the training — a cost that could climb to $400, said Rachel Solemsaas, president of North Seattle College, because it will no longer be allowed to grant tuition waivers.

Solemsaas said the college has multiple hurdles to jump in order to maintain its preschools and parent education, including converting it into a certificate program and proving to the state that it qualifies as workforce training.

Solemsaas said she supports the state requirement for colleges to demonstrate that their career training programs lead to jobs for their students.

“It’s the right approach for the system to hold us accountable — to say, ‘is this really a program of value?’” she said. “But it doesn’t give you that flexibility to define other community value. It’s an understatement that parents are working, right?”

Tania Hino is one of many parents whose career trajectory changed after attending the program with their children. Hino started as a parent in the program, and is now a parent educator on the North Seattle College faculty.

“When I knew this was it is when I noticed how everybody was helping each other, and that you all were in the same boat trying to raise your kids,” Hino said.

“A big problem of our system is that we don’t see the value of parenting. It’s very, very difficult, and a very lonely job if you’re not in community,” she said, especially for immigrants like her who may be raising children far from their extended families.

“I wanted to help other families find their village.”

When Ernestina Soria brought her daughter to the Spanish immersion preschool at North Seattle College, and enrolled in the Parent Education Program, her parenting approach changed dramatically, Soria said — from the authoritarian style she grew up with, to now listening to her children’s needs and respecting their opinions.

“The things that I learned here, I wanted to teach to the other parents,” Soria said. “I decided to complete my education.”

While parenting young children, Soria completed her GED, got an associate’s degree in early childhood education at Renton Technical College, and is now working toward a bachelor’s degree.

Today, Soria is a classroom teacher in the cooperative preschool that inspired her.

Hino said the faculty are now working feverishly to gather data on how many parents have stories like Soria’s and her own in order to show the program’s career outcomes and maintain state funding.

They’re also reaching out to foundations and researching grant opportunities in a frenzied effort to keep the decades-old Parent Education Program — and its cooperative preschools — alive.

“If our programs close, there’s no way they’re coming back,” Hino said.

Ann Dornfeld is a reporter with KUOW. This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.

It is part of OPB’s broader effort to ensure that everyone in our region has access to quality journalism that informs, entertains and enriches their lives. To learn more, visit our journalism partnerships page.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/03/20/washington-coop-preschools-funding/