Photo courtesy of Metro Newspaper Service.
Dallas ISD will officially offer tuition-free pre-K for 3- and 4-year-olds next school year.
The school board voted unanimously at the March 26 board meeting to approve the change.
Currently, the district only provides free pre-K to students who qualify. Those qualifications include military households, low-income families, non-English learners, and children of Dallas ISD teachers, according to an article from KERA.
Remaining families paid tuition rates, with the full-day rate at $5,500 for the 2025-26 school year, according to the Dallas ISD website.
“We think this is a good opportunity,” chief academic officer Angie Gaylord said at a March 12 board briefing. “We know when we get kids early, they do better. We also know that our retention rates for pre-K are great, and our retention rates for parents that were already paying tuition, it’s like 92%, are still staying with us. So we feel like this is a good thing.”
Registration to take advantage of the new pre-K option for the 2026-27 school year opens April 1.
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Victoria Hernandez is the Oak Cliff editor for Advocate Media. Prior to joining the Advocate, she wrote for Walton Insights, KUAF 91.3 and UARK Student Media. Victoria studied at the University of Arkansas, earning a B.A. in English/Journalism with minors in history and gender studies and a M.A. in Journalism with a Graduate Certificate in African and African American Studies. She can be reached by email at vhernandez@advocatemag.com