Chicago Public Schools’ universal pre-K ‘strangling’ private day care centers, owners say

This fall, CPS will have 16,020 preschool seats available, the district said in a news release. For the 2020-21 school year, private preschools in Chicago served more than 54,000 children, according to Private School Review, which compiles school-reported enrollment data from private schools across the nation. But the financial burden of losing enrollment, plus the increased cost of caring for infant children, has left many child care centers hastening to adjust their model to account for losing students to CPS pre-K.