Advice about OUSD Preschools

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  • OUSD Preschool experience with IEP?

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    May 2, 2025

    Hi Everyone,
    Our 3 year old son was recently assessed by OUSD and they found he’s on the autism spectrum, but a bit more on the mild side. He’s verbal and has great vocabulary and has made tons of friends at his current preschool, but can work on word and sentence structure, pronunciation, conversations with others, emotional regulation, attention, and transitions. OUSD recommended he attend one of their preschools that have social and speech services integrated into the general classroom. 

    We’ve been researching OUSD preschools and a few seem promising for our needs - Laurel, Kaiser, Burbank. Curious if anyone sent their kids (especially with an IEP but open to any thoughts) to any of these programs or other ones? We’ve read that parent engagement seems much lower at these schools and have seen mixed reviews on the effectiveness of services. I’d also add that we’re only going to need to do this for a year as he’s eligible for TK Fall 2026 and plan to enroll him at our neighborhood school Glenview which will have services. Also curious if anyone in a similar situation ended up going a different route outside of OUSD schools.


    Thanks!

    Jordan

    May 2, 2025

    First of all, great job of knowing your son's strengths, advocating for him and considering the different preschool options.

    My son was also diagnosed with level 1 ASD shortly after he was 3 and has an IEP.

    You'd asked about other routes outside of school district.  I kept my son at his preschool and got an aide (through insurance) to attend school with him.  If your son has made a lot of friends and is enjoying/thriving where he is at, I'd consider doing the same if possible (know there are a lot of different factors and each family's situation is unique).

    If there are other services in his IEP (speech, OT, etc), you should be able to take advantage of them and decline the preschool option.  

    Separately I've heard good things about Glenview and the services there.

    May 7, 2025

    My son was assessed by OUSD at 3.5 years old to have autism (High functioning) and was offered a spot at Burbank. The two years he was there he had two amazing teachers and paras. My son had a great experience at Burbank. The parent involvement at the time was nonexistent. I tried to start a parent support group and one mom showed up once and that was it. To get him prepared for his Kindergarten inclusion class I had him attend Laurel preschool a few days a week to see how he could handle a general education class. It was chaotic and ultimately not a good fit. He also tried Garfield preschool for a day and although it was not as chaotic as Laurel it wasn’t a good fit either. He ended up attending Burbank full time for his last year. Something I learned from that experience is that its not necessarily the school, but the teachers that make or break the child’s experience. Burbank teachers have special education training and the other schools don’t. They are general education teachers and it makes a difference. Glenview was also our home school, but at the time there wasn’t an inclusion program there so he ended up going to Joaquin Miller for Kindergarten-2nd grade. While the para assigned to my son was amazing, the teachers and principal were so-so. It ultimately was not a good fit due to bullying and other reasons so we started homeschooling 3 months into 2nd grade. My son is now 11 years old and does a hybrid of homeschooling with charter school support through Connecting Waters Eastbay and its the best option for him. If I knew of this program I would have forgone OUSD and started it from the beginning.

    May 7, 2025

  • Experience with OUSD preschools?

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    May 1, 2023

    I found out that my 3-year-old qualifies for preschool through OUSD and I'm trying to weigh some options. We are finishing up the IEP process and he's being offered half days at an OUSD preschool with some special education support. I'm wondering if anyone has any insight into the preschool programs that OUSD offers? Placement isn't guaranteed anywhere but it looks like our options include Acorn Woodland, Allendale, Arroyo Viejo, Centro Infantil, Emerson, Highland, and United Nation CDC. Does anyone have experience with any of these? I'm mostly wondering how much is play-based vs. academic and what the school day looks like at this age.

    He currently attends a Montessori preschool full time, so my options are to fully transfer him to OUSD (and pay tuition to extend to a full day), stay at his current preschool in the mornings and OUSD preschool for the afternoon, or decline OUSD and stay where he is. He's been at his current preschool since 18 months and he really loves it there, so I don't want to pull him out completely unless it's absolutely in his best interest. The smaller group time he'd get at OUSD could be huge for him, but I'm thinking that a morning of independent Montessori work followed by an afternoon of academics is too much so that's what I want to avoid.

    May 1, 2023

    If you have the option to go to Burbank Preschool Center I would choose that site. My son also has an IEP and they selected that school for us. He had an awesome experience with the 2 teachers who I know one is no longer teaching. The school is mostly SDC with some inclusive classes so I believe all the teachers have experience with kids with special needs, something general ed teachers usually don’t have. We trialed Laurel Preschool  to prepare my son for his kindergarten inclusion class and the teacher did not have the skills to appropriately teach my son with high functioning autism and sensory processing disorder. 

    My son thrived at Burbank. They did play based and academics, art, and at recess there’s a large newer playground with tricycles. He attended 2017-2019 so not sure what its like now. While the teachers and most paras were amazing, there were a few that weren’t, but that can be any school. There wasn’t much of a community as most parents would drop off their kids and pick up without talking to one another. The school is a majority of minority and non English families which is great (we are minorities as well), but also contributed to the lack of community since many spoke other languages. No events for the school community that I can remember and no field trips which mostly had to do with the lack of budget.

    Lastly, the school is off 64th/65th Ave so be aware of what that neighborhood is like. Parking off 64th Ave is tight but was cleaner than 65th. Depending on what part of Oakland you’re from it may or may not be what you’re used to, but despite the location I felt that the experience my son received at the school was well worth it. Burbank is the only OUSD school I would recommend. He had an awful experience at Joaquin Miller which was predominantly non minorities, in the hills, and one of the better funded schools in OUSD. I pulled him out in 2nd grade and wish I did it sooner.

    One thing to note, is that OUSD is closing the special ed - inclusion and sdc classes at many elementary schools right now including Joaquin Miller in which the parents and teachers are trying to keep them open especially since they were given very little notice.

    To be honest, with the exception of Burbank, skip OUSD all together and consider homeschooling. Its the best decision I’ve made and my son is getting the academics and extracurricular support OUSD would never be able to provide.

    May 3, 2023
    Recommended:
    Burbank Preschool & Diagnostic Center

  • ECE program in Oakland

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    Nov 23, 2022

    We live in Oakland and have an almost 3-year-old (Dec. 5 birthday) who’s in a great preschool, but we’re wondering if we should start looking into OUSD’s ECE programs for next school year. Those programs are more affordable, and it would be nice to be at an elementary school that he would attend later. I’m looking for parents who have considered ECE programs. What were your considerations when you were deciding whether to attend? Are there reviews for Oakland ECE centers? If you are attending an Oakland ECE now, how are you and your kid liking it? Thanks so much!

    Nov 23, 2022

    I'm so sorry to say that the ECE process in OUSD is super unclear and disorganized, AND is also explicitly for very low-income families, which isn't publicized very well. I felt like a fool after trying to navigate the entire process--I applied for my kid as soon as the window opened, didn't hear anything at all by the summer, called several times and couldn't get through, exercised my privilege and drove to the enrollment center, where they asked me my income and seemed confused. Then they told me I'd find out by mid-August if she had a spot. (That is, of course, after school starts.) I got a phone call in mid-October to confirm my income again. (I didn't call back, since now I understood what was going on.) A friend of mine just got a phone call to learn there's a spot for her kid two weeks ago (mid-November!). For those who are low-income: be sure to follow up if you don't hear. For those who can afford preschool: Those spots are for kids whose families can't.

    Sure would be lovely to be at the same campus as her sister, though. :)

    Sorry for the bad news.

    Nov 30, 2022

    My son has attended the Manzanita ECE since Sept 2022. He is happy and seems to be learning things. I like his teacher pretty well - she seems experienced - but I do get the sense that her workload is heavy and she doesn't always have time to communicate with us as much as I would like. One thing to flag is that the ECEs are not really connected with the elementary schools they share campuses with, at least not Manzanita. But it has been helpful for us to get a feel for the commute since we are considering Manzanita SEED for kindergarten. Another thing is that it's not free unless you income qualify so we pay $700/month for a half-day program which is not super different than some of the cheaper private pre schools. Also we had to wait to enroll until they try to fill all the spots with people who do income qualify so we started school about a month into the year. All in all, I'm glad we did it because my son is happy and it has been good to get an introduction to OUSD generally. 

    Nov 30, 2022
    Recommended:
    Manzanita SEED Elementary School

    Important clarification to the previous poster's response: OUSD's ECE program is not explicitly for low-income families; it is just subsidized or free of charge for those families. Families who are not low-income are absolutely welcome, but pay tuition (and low-income families must be offered spots before they move to the full tuition families, so it is true that there is not always room for every child who wants to attend at a given campus). Your child does have enrollment priority at the elementary school where the ECE campus is located when TK rolls around. You can find information on the program offerings and on the current tuition cost at https://www.ousd.org/Page/642. As the TK eligibility window expands--all four-year-olds will soon be eligible for TK--there will likely be more open spots in the ECE programs.

    Dec 7, 2022

  • Advice on OUSD preschools

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    Sep 21, 2017

    Hello - looking for advice on OUSD preschools / Child Development Centers, particularly at Emerson or Sankofa, but open to any gems. My 14th month old currently attends a playgroup run by Oakland Parks & Rec with excellent teachers, and I am wondering if we can avoid the private preschool waiting list process altogether by enrolling her in an OUSD preschool when she comes of age.

    1. Do OUSD preK programs have a good amount of child-directed play, or do they mostly consist of teacher-led instruction?

    2. Are these programs difficult to get into, and would shoot ourselves in the foot by counting on a public program and not waitlisting our child for private preschools now?

    3. If she attends a preK program attached to an OUSD elementary school, will she automatically be enrolled into kindergarten at that elementary school, or will she still have to enter the lottery system?

    4. Our ideal preschool, public or private, would be majority black or people of color, with an alternative curriculum closer to Waldorf / Montessori philosophy. Does that exist??

    Sep 21, 2017

    OUSD preschools only very recently (last year!) opened their doors to full-pay/sliding scale families; previously all spots were subsidized and you could only attend if you met income restrictions or qualified for special education services through the school district. I don't think they're difficult to get into right now (given that last year they were still taking kids mid-year). All that's to say that the landscape is changing in OUSD PreK, so you really need to visit specific schools to see what things look like today. My sense from friends whose children have attended is that you will find a majority of families of color, but you will likely not find an alternative curriculum. You do currently get priority for kindergarten if you attend PreK at a site. Be aware that OUSD preschool starts at age three, while many private programs start at two, so if you are looking to start next fall, you may need to do a year of private regardless. I'd check out La Plazita and Via Nova for preschools with significant numbers of black and brown families, depending on where you live.  Good luck with the search!

    Sep 25, 2017
RE:
Supporting 4 year old with ASD (May 2, 2024)

We had our son’s diagnosis pretty early, so in August after he turned 3, we enrolled in an Oakland USD run pre-school integrated program. We stressed about whether this school or a normal private preschool would be better. The school district offered speech once a week and 3hrs a day of paraprofessional help. I think the cost of trying to do private preschool plus finding similar services, negotiating some liabilities with the school, and paying out of pocket seemed more stressful with more unknowns and certainly cost. The downside with OUSD was that OUSD hours are limited, 8:30-2:30 and we both work. We were able to find a sitter for two hours a day. Honestly, we are kind of socioeconomic outliers at this preschool, and we haven’t been able to make friends, there is no parent involvement or network at the school. We probably should have gone the preschool plus out of pocket support for the social network aspects.
We’re applying to TK and still waitlisted at 4th in line for our closest school, but we keep being reassured that we should get in no problem. We’re looking forward to TK, but the whole application and waitlist is a nightmare.

The other thing we thought about was the stress of switching schools. We were waitlisted forever at a private preschool and they offered us a spot midway through the school year. We hope that we can do TK-5 all at our neighborhood school, and switching for 9 months didn’t seem worth it.

My son sounds very similar to yours and I’d love to connect if you are not too far. It’s been hard for us to find regular friends for our son. Shoot me a DM if you want to chat.

Jun 16, 2024
Recommended:
Advice about OUSD Preschools