Multnomah County’s Preschool for All (PFA) program is on track to achieve full universality by Fall 2030, offering free preschool to all of the County’s three- and four-year-olds whose families wish to enroll them. PFA will provide lots of options for families of location, size of setting, language, cultural context and schedule, including year-round and up to 10-hour days.
Despite decades of research confirming the benefits of early childhood education and care, local reporting in Multnomah County has yet to reflect the experiences of PFA participants. These two reports share findings from interviews and surveys conducted with PFA parents and teachers in the spring and summer of 2025. The study authors first held in-depth interviews with both parents and teachers, then used what they learned to create a short survey that could be taken by many more people. The reports describe PFA’s impacts on participants and their families, as well as suggestions made for program improvement.
The consensus among parents and teachers is that PFA is a profoundly valuable resource, setting children up for a successful transition to kindergarten, boosting family wellbeing and economic stability, and enabling teachers to see a more viable future in the field of early childhood education and care.
The interviews surfaced stories of parents finding better jobs after being able to return to school to complete credentials; families experiencing much less stress, which one parent reported stabilized their marriage; paying down debt and being able to rely less on family members for care that was a hardship for them to provide.
In interviews, teachers spoke of feeling more valued; better supported in the classroom and happy to be providing culturally specific care and to a broader range of the community than in the past. Survey respondents offered short accounts of the most important impacts of Preschool for All for themselves and their families, as well as answers to these and other questions:
Of parents surveyed:
- 93% feel good about their child’s preschool program.
- 79% believe their child is more prepared for kindergarten.
- 79% feel less financial stress.
- 72% report that their child is doing better socially or emotionally.
- 49% have been able to increase the number of hours that they work.
And, of teachers surveyed:
- 80% report that their pay has increased.
- 65% have received professional coaching or other professional development opportunities.
- 65% feel that their classroom is better supported for working with children with special needs or other issues.
- 65% see children becoming better prepared to succeed in kindergarten.
- 60% see a better future for themselves in the field of early childhood education and care.
For more, please read and share both the interview and survey reports on the impacts of participating in Multnomah County’s Preschool for All Program, linked below.