Georgia Pre-K FAQ —
Everything Parents Ask

Yes, Georgia Pre-K is genuinely free. There is no tuition, no co-pay, and no income test. The 6.5-hour school day program costs your family nothing for the instructional component. The "catch" parents sometimes encounter is that there are optional and additional fees that providers may charge:

• Registration or enrollment fee: Many providers charge a one-time fee ($25–$200+) to secure your child's spot. This is legal and common.
• Meals: Meals may cost extra depending on your family's income — though many programs offer free meals through federal programs.
• Before/after care: Extended hours beyond the 6.5-hour school day are not covered by the Pre-K grant and carry additional fees.
• Transportation: Some providers charge for bus service.
• Supplies or uniforms: Some programs require specific supplies or uniforms that parents purchase.

The state-funded instruction — the actual Pre-K program — is always free. Everything listed above is optional or supplemental, not part of the core grant-funded program.

Children with IEPs or special needs are eligible for Georgia Pre-K, and programs are required to make reasonable accommodations. A disability does not disqualify a child — in fact, early childhood is precisely when special education services have the greatest impact.

Here's how it works in practice:

• Notify the program director about your child's IEP during the application process — not after enrollment. This allows time to plan appropriate accommodations.
• The Pre-K provider coordinates with your local school system's special education team to align IEP goals with the Pre-K classroom environment.
• Speech, occupational, or physical therapy services can still be delivered while your child attends Georgia Pre-K — often at the Pre-K site or at your local school's therapy room.
• If a provider says they cannot serve your child, contact DECAL at 1-888-4GA-PREK. Providers cannot simply refuse eligible children with disabilities without making a good-faith effort at accommodation.

If your child has developmental delays but no formal IEP yet, Georgia Pre-K teachers are trained to support a range of developmental levels and can make referrals to your school system for evaluation.

Yes. Unlike Head Start, which requires attendance at a specific Head Start site, Georgia Pre-K allows you to enroll at any licensed provider that participates in the program and has available slots. You are not assigned a program based on your address (except at public schools, which may have enrollment zones for their Pre-K programs).

You can choose a private daycare across town, a church-based preschool, or your neighborhood public school — any approved provider with space. You can even enroll at a program in a different city if it suits your commute and family schedule. Use the Find a Program page to search your options.

If you move within Georgia during the school year, your child can transfer to a Georgia Pre-K program at a new provider, provided the new program has an available slot. Contact the new program directly, explain the situation, and ask about mid-year enrollment. DECAL (the state Pre-K agency) will be involved in the transfer of the Pre-K funding to the new provider — the program will handle this process.

If you move out of Georgia mid-year, your child's Georgia Pre-K enrollment ends. Contact your new state's early childhood education department to find local options. Most states have some form of Pre-K, though few are as universally funded as Georgia's.

If you move within the same city or county, the simplest option is often to keep your child at their current program for the rest of the school year if the commute is manageable — the disruption of switching mid-year can be hard on 4-year-olds.

No. Georgia Pre-K does not assign homework. The program is designed as a complete school day experience — learning happens during the 6.5 hours in the classroom, not as a take-home task.

Teachers may share "family connection" activities — suggestions for things to do together at home like reading a book, counting objects during grocery shopping, or talking about what your child learned that day. These are optional enrichment suggestions, not graded assignments.

The research is clear that homework for 4-year-olds provides no academic benefit and can actually create stress and negative associations with learning. Georgia Pre-K's philosophy is that home time should be for play, rest, and family connection — not worksheets.

Georgia Pre-K and kindergarten are both public education programs, but they are meaningfully different in approach, expectations, and structure:

• Learning style: Pre-K is heavily play-based — children learn through exploration, building, dramatic play, and hands-on activities. Kindergarten is more formal, with longer whole-class instruction, more sitting, and more direct academic instruction.
• Expectations: Pre-K builds foundational skills (letter recognition, counting, social-emotional development). Kindergarten assumes children arrive with those foundations and builds on them — reading emergent text, writing sentences, solving addition problems.
• Assessment: Pre-K teachers use observational assessment (watching children interact and learn) rather than tests. Kindergarten includes more formal assessments including the Georgia Kindergarten Inventory of Developing Skills (GKIDS).
• Schedule: Both are 6.5-hour school days with 180-day years. The pacing and structure within that day differs significantly.
• Accountability: Pre-K teachers are evaluated on classroom quality and child development progress. Kindergarten teachers are accountable to grade-level standards and test scores.

The goal of Pre-K is to close the readiness gap so every child enters kindergarten on a level playing field. Pre-K is not "mini kindergarten" — it's the foundation for it.

Most Georgia Pre-K programs require children to be potty trained or actively in the process of becoming trained. Unlike infant/toddler daycare rooms, Pre-K classrooms are not equipped with diapering areas and teachers cannot realistically manage diapering 20 children while delivering a structured educational program.

However, "potty trained" does not mean "accident-free." Most programs understand that 4-year-olds still have occasional accidents — especially during busy or exciting days. Programs typically have a change of clothes policy and handle accidents with dignity and without punishment.

If your child is not yet reliably using the toilet:

• Contact your target programs to ask about their specific policy before applying
• Start an active potty training program in the spring or summer before Pre-K begins — most children make significant progress in a few focused weeks
• Talk to your pediatrician if you have concerns about developmental readiness for toilet training

Many children who enter Pre-K still wearing pull-ups successfully transition to underwear within the first few weeks of school — the peer environment and routine often help accelerate the process.

Yes. Georgia Pre-K has no work requirement. Unlike CAPS (which requires at least one parent to be working, in school, or in approved training), Georgia Pre-K is open to all families regardless of employment status.

Stay-at-home parents, single parents between jobs, parents on parental leave, students, retired grandparents raising grandchildren, and full-time working parents all qualify equally. The only requirements are the child's age (turning 4 by September 1), Georgia residency, and that the child hasn't previously attended Georgia Pre-K.

This is intentional — Georgia Pre-K is designed as an educational program for children, not a childcare subsidy for employed parents. The benefit belongs to the child, not the parent's employment situation.

Georgia Pre-K and Head Start are both free preschool programs, but they serve different populations and have different structures:

• Income: Georgia Pre-K is universal — any income qualifies. Head Start is income-restricted — families must be at or below 100% of the federal poverty level (or have a child with an IEP, or be experiencing homelessness).
• Ages: Georgia Pre-K serves 4-year-olds. Head Start serves 3–5 year olds. Early Head Start serves children from birth to age 3.
• Funding: Georgia Pre-K is funded by state lottery proceeds. Head Start is federally funded through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
• Provider choice: Georgia Pre-K allows you to choose from any approved provider. Head Start requires attendance at a specific Head Start grantee site.
• Services: Head Start provides comprehensive wraparound services including health screenings, dental care, mental health support, and family case management. Georgia Pre-K is education-focused.

Many Head Start sites host Georgia Pre-K classrooms, allowing both programs to serve children simultaneously in the same building. If your family qualifies for Head Start, it's worth exploring both options — you may be able to benefit from Head Start's comprehensive services while your child attends a Georgia Pre-K classroom.

Most Georgia Pre-K programs provide breakfast and lunch through federal child nutrition programs — either the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) or the National School Lunch Program (NSLP). Whether meals are free, reduced-price, or full-price for your family depends on your household income:

• At or below 130% of the federal poverty level: Free meals
• Between 130–185% FPL: Reduced-price meals (typically $0.30–$0.40 per meal)
• Above 185% FPL: Full-price meals (typically $1.75–$3.50 per meal depending on program)

Note: This meal eligibility determination is completely separate from Pre-K enrollment. You complete a free/reduced meal application with your provider at the time of enrollment — it doesn't affect your child's right to attend Pre-K.

Many metro Atlanta programs participate in Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), which makes all meals free to all students regardless of income, without requiring families to apply. Ask your specific program whether they participate in CEP.

It depends on the type of program:

• Public school Pre-K: If your child attends Pre-K at your local elementary school, they will almost certainly be able to attend kindergarten at that same school the following year. The physical transition from Pre-K to kindergarten is minimal — the same building, the same hallways, possibly the same cafeteria. This continuity is one of the main advantages of school-based Pre-K.
• Private daycare or church-based Pre-K: Most private providers stop at Pre-K and don't offer kindergarten. After Pre-K, your child will transition to a public or private elementary school for kindergarten. This transition requires a conversation about school registration (kindergarten registration in most Georgia counties happens in January–March).

If continuity of school environment is important to you, enrolling in a public school Pre-K program is the most direct path to seamless transition into kindergarten. If you prefer a private or faith-based environment, ask the program what they do to help prepare children for the kindergarten transition.

Yes. Each twin qualifies independently for Georgia Pre-K as long as each meets the age, residency, and first-time-attendance requirements (which they will, assuming they're both turning 4 in the same school year).

The Georgia Pre-K benefit is per-child, not per-family — so two children means two slots. Twins can:

• Attend the same program (same or different classrooms)
• Attend different programs (if one program doesn't have two slots, or parents prefer separation)

On the classroom placement question: many programs will ask whether you want your twins placed together or in separate classrooms. Both approaches have research support. Some parents and educators prefer separation to help each child develop their own identity and social connections; others prefer placement together for comfort during the transition. There's no rule either way — discuss your preference with the program director. Many programs will honor your request if they have flexibility in classroom assignments.

One practical note: if your preferred program only has one slot available, apply for both children and get on the waitlist for the second slot. Or find two programs that each have one slot — twin families often split between two nearby providers during Pre-K.

Yes — in fact, Georgia Pre-K is often recommended specifically for children who haven't been in group care before. The social-emotional skills developed in Pre-K (taking turns, sharing, making friends, managing frustration, following group routines) are precisely what shy or home-reared children benefit most from developing before kindergarten.

The adjustment period for shy children is typically 2–4 weeks. Experienced Pre-K teachers are trained to ease the transition with predictable routines, gentle introductions, and lots of positive reinforcement. By mid-fall, most children who were clinging to the doorframe in August are running in enthusiastically. Prepare your child by visiting the school before the first day, reading books about starting school, and keeping your goodbye routine brief and confident.

Yes. There is no language requirement for Georgia Pre-K enrollment. Children who are dual language learners (DLL) — children growing up with two languages — qualify just as any other Georgia 4-year-old does.

Georgia Pre-K classrooms primarily operate in English, but teachers are trained to support DLL children through visual cues, modeling, repetition, and individualized support. Research shows that high-quality Pre-K is particularly beneficial for dual language learners, who arrive at kindergarten having developed both their home language and English alongside their peers.

If your family primarily speaks Spanish, note that DECAL publishes Spanish-language materials about Georgia Pre-K, and some providers have bilingual staff. Ask about language support when contacting programs near you.