Pre-K 4 SA expands to infants, toddlers as San Antonio weighs future

May 2-On a Wednesday morning at Pre-K 4 SA's South Education Center in April, Giselle Salazar and her friends stirred mud and wood chips inside bowls, then poured the mixture over a rock in a dry creek bed. To Salazar and her fellow 3- and 4-year-olds, the rock was a shark and the bowls held sushi and soup.

The young students are part of the city's early education initiative - now in its second decade of operations - that aims to boost student learning before children even start kindergarten. On that Wednesday, the children were not the only ones using their imagination.

Pre-K 4 SA CEO Sarah Baray, policymakers and early education experts have been envisioning what the program could become with future support from city voters.

Pre-K 4 SA's mission is twofold: educate children early in hopes of breaking generational cycles of poverty and provide the city's neediest families with affordable childcare. The initiative launched in 2012 after San Antonio voters approved a one-eighth-cent sales tax to fund the program. Voters re-upped the program in 2020, and City Council is now discussing another extension in the next few years.

In its first 14 years of operation, the city-backed initiative, governed by an 11-member board of council appointees, has served more than 23,000 3- and 4-year-olds, mostly from San Antonio's low-income families.

A recent study conducted by Rice University found that most San Antonio students aren't prepared for kindergarten. However, 78% of Pre-K 4 SA alumni were ready to enter elementary school. A 2019 study from the University of Texas at San Antonio found graduates of Pre-K 4 SA did better on state standardized tests than peers who attended other prekindergarten programs and those who did not attend pre-K.

Now the organization is looking to serve even younger students: infants and toddlers.

Despite the recent expansion of pre-K programs across the state, there still are not enough spots in high-quality programs to serve infants and toddlers, said Mark Larson, a researcher and executive director of Early Matters San Antonio, an organization that advocates for the expansion of high-quality early learning opportunities across the city.

"Brain research has come a long way in the last 20, 30 years... and what we know now is that about 90% of a person's brain development takes place before the first day of kindergarten," Larson said.

In fall 2025, Pre-K 4 SA opened its newest campus in the city's southeast corridor. In the program's new facility, Pre-K 4 SA enrolls students as early as six weeks after they are born in classes built for infants and toddlers. Throughout the school day, the youngest students play outside, listen during story time and do group learning activities indoors.

The program uses the HighScope Preschool Curriculum, which focuses on boosting students' social, physical and communication skills while also boosting learning in math and reading. HighScope describes its model as a way to help young learners "make sense of their world," through hands-on learning and a mix of time spent inside and outdoors.

While Pre-K 4 SA has traditionally served older students, it began piloting the program for even younger children because research shows that children's brains develop early and can benefit from learning shortly after birth. A 2025 city-commissioned study with Texas A&M University-San Antonio found a high need for early childcare across the metro area.

Researchers wrote that affordable options are limited and parents are often "exiting the workforce or relying on family members, friends, neighbors, or non-regulated sites to care for their children under five."

The pilot program looks to help children build developmental skills while also providing families a low-cost childcare option so they can go to work or school without worrying about the financial burden or having to stay at home.

The inaugural cohort of infants and toddlers includes 40 children. About 80% come from low-income families who would qualify for free- and reduced-price lunch in public schools.

"What we hope to show is that their outcomes are even higher than the outcomes of the children that we've had; we want to be able to show that every year of Pre-K 4 SA matters, and children benefit from that," Baray said.

Families notice early growth

As Salazar and the other 3- and 4-year-olds played outside, teachers in the wing for the program's youngest learners watched them through hallway windows as they dimmed the lights and drew the window shades, preparing infants and toddlers for nap time.

Upon arrival, Pre-K 4 SA serves infants and toddlers breakfast, before they spend time outside in the morning. The children also participate in group activities around story time, playing with toys and "music and movement." The young learners have some freedom in their schedules, including 30-minute intervals throughout the day for "choice time" when they can choose how to play and learn at different activity stations across the classroom.

Nearly half of the cohort of young learners are children of city employees, and another 30% are children of employees of Peter J. Holt, Spurs part-owner and CEO of the HOLT Group, whose companies span construction, energy and technology. Holt donated the new child care facility to Pre-K 4 SA.

While the pilot program is underway, Pre-K 4 SA does not yet have a timeline on when it will expand the dedicated spots for infants and toddlers.

"I think if we build new buildings, we will include infant (and) toddler classrooms," Baray said. "We'll expand, but we don't yet have firm plans."

Because the program is still new, data on children's development are not yet available. Results are expected by fall. Pre-K 4 SA is using several assessments designed to evaluate children's progress, including motor, language, problem-solving and social-emotional skills. The evaluations also help staff observe the quality of interactions in the classroom and track growth over the course of their early education.

Even though it's too soon to tell how well the program is working with data, some parents say they're seeing progress in their children's development.

Marine veteran and city inspector Jesus Leza has three daughters. His youngest, 1-year-old Madison, is part of the pilot program.

"Madison is leaps ahead of the other girls at the same age," Leza said. "She's talking faster than the other girls ... even walking."

When Madison started the program, she was slowly making progress toward walking, but within a week or two of her enrollment, "she just all of a sudden started moving."

"We've seen a lot of - absolutely - a lot of growth, very quick," Leza said.

Fellow veteran Alex Lopez, who served in the Army and is the father of three children in Pre-K 4 SA, has seen similar results from his youngest son, who is six months old.

"As a parent, you're really not supposed to compare your children," Lopez said before adding that he has seen his youngest son develop faster than his other children, who were "doing daddy daycare."

"He started crawling around like four months, while they started crawling around, like eight, to seven months," Lopez said. "Then he started not really speaking, but making sounds quicker compared to (when) my daughters did."

The childcare provided for his three children by Pre-K 4 SA has opened the door for Lopez to take classes at St. Philip's College and transfer to a local university, where he plans to pursue a bachelor's degree in early childhood education. He and his wife have decided to stay in San Antonio so their children can remain in the program.

Both fathers are paying a fixed rate based on their household income. The cost - $160 a month for Lopez and $370 for Leza - is still lower than the average childcare cost for families. Both called the program a blessing.

"I think it's very, very much needed. And I say this because this has opened up an opportunity for my wife to be able to work and have an identity," Leza said.

Policy push

Across the country, officials and advocates are pushing to improve childcare for families.

Last year, New Mexico became the first state to provide universal childcare, giving families free access for their children. In New York City, Mayor Zohran Mamdani has pushed to expand free childcare citywide. San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones has made expanding Pre-K 4 SA and improving early childhood education a key part of her agenda.

"Early learning and affordable, high-quality childcare options are similarly the deciding factors for whether someone will remain in or exit a workforce," she said during her State of the City address in April. "As the third poorest city in the country, we need all hands on deck to ensure folks are contributing to our economy, and early learning and affordable, high-quality childcare help to do just that."

San Antonio is one of the poorest major cities in the country, and despite growth, many historically underserved neighborhoods in its urban core still lack resources and have high poverty rates.

"Free childcare has a powerful two-generation effect," said Xin Li, assistant professor of early childhood education at the University of Houston. "For children, it improves access to high-quality early learning, which supports long-term academic and developmental outcomes. For parents, it enables workforce participation, income stability, and career advancement."

Li has found in her own research that "family and school environments working together" often shape students' outcomes, and that "policies that support families economically also support children's development."

"In that sense, childcare policy is not just education policy - it's also economic mobility policy," Li said.

Future expansion

While there are no concrete plans for how infants and toddlers will fit into Pre-K 4 SA's future, city council members are discussing expanding the program.

Earlier this month, members were briefed on Pre-K 4 SA's work and the program's projected budget for next fiscal year. Pre-K 4 SA is projecting a nearly $63 million budget - roughly a 3% increase from the previous fiscal year.

When voters gave a second approval to Pre-K 4 SA's city-wide funding mechanism in 2020, they extended the early childhood program for another eight years. With the program's funding mechanism set to expire by 2029, voters will have to weigh in again to continue the investment. Some local leaders want a vote on Pre-K 4 SA's future even sooner.

"I want to advocate for the reauthorization of Pre-K 4 SA sooner than the '28 mark, and I would also advocate for the 20-year renewal because I think these challenges will not go away in 20 years," said City Council Member Edward Mungia, who represents San Antonio's southwest side.

Others questioned whether a longer approval could also open the door to expanding what Pre-K 4 SA can do.

"With the reauthorization, would we be able to expand Pre-K 4 SA, such as right now we have the zero through three program, would we be able to expand that because that's such a great need?" City Council Member Jalen McKee-Rodriguez, who represents the East Side, asked.

Baray responded that it would.

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