EDCJCC Preschool FAQs

Ages 18 months–5 years. 

Our Preschool begins with our 18-24 month class and goes through Pre-K (five years old). We typically take children starting in September or January after they turn 18 months.

The EDCJCC Preschool is open Monday–Friday, 7:45 AM–6:00 PM. The core tuition covers the school day from 7:45 AM–4:30 PM, and aftercare is available for an additional fee until 6:00 PM. The school year runs from September through mid-August.

We do not offer a part-time pricing model, but you are welcome to pick your child up early at any point or keep them home as needed. Early Care and After Care is available.

Children must be walked into the building, brought to their classroom (or the Early Room), and signed in by their parent or caregiver. There is a parking lot on the east side of the EDCJCC on Q Street that has designated spaces for drop-off and pick-up. You may also park in front of the building in the designated drop-off area for up to fifteen minutes at a time. For our many families who walk or take public transportation, we offer full-day stroller parking inside the building.

No. When your child is ready, we work closely with the parent and child to toilet train the child in a consistent, calm, and encouraging manner.

Your preschool enrollment includes a Family Fitness Membership. You will have access to all of the fitness facilities – pool, locker room, fitness center and a wide range of group exercise classes that are free to all fitness members. Please click here to learn more about our Fitness Center.

Along with all of the fitness opportunities, your membership also includes discounts on Camp, Child and Caregiver Classes, theater, film, and other programs offered at the EDCJCC.

We take security very seriously. We have a security director and a trained crisis management team. We are in constant contact with our security partners at MPD, FBI, Homeland Security and the SCN Network, a network that ensures the safety, security and resiliency of the Jewish community of North America. 

All of our staff are trained in up-to-date security protocols. We have monthly fire drills and one lockdown drill per year. 

Access to the preschool wing is limited to parents and caregivers with Preschool ID badges, teachers, and EDCJCC administrators. General community members do not have access to the preschool wing. 

We have Jewish, interfaith, and non-Jewish families in our school. We welcome all children, regardless of religion, race, family type, or cultural background. We are proud of the diversity of our students and their families, as it strengthens the program and the children’s development.

Please see our School Calendar for this year’s closures.

Monthly tuition includes our core school day (8:45 AM-4:15 PM) and our Early Room (7:45-8:45 AM).

For the 2025-2026 school year, the monthly tuition will be:

• 18-24 month class: $2,975 per month
• 2-year-old classes: $2,800 per month 
• 3-5-year-old classes: $2, 675 per month

Aftercare from 4:15-6:00 PM is available for an additional $25 per day with a maximum of $360 per month. You do not need to sign up for or commit to the Aftercare program at the time of registration.

Aftercare enrichment registration is available in fall, winter, spring, and summer sessions for an additional fee.

We are a twelve-month program. Our school year begins just before or after Labor Day and runs through the middle of August. Parents are responsible for tuition from the first day of school through August 31 of the school year. Children usually start at the beginning of the school year, but we welcome mid-year entries if spots are available.

When you sign a contract, we ask for a deposit payment of one month of tuition payment, covering the first month of the school year (September). The deposit payment is non-refundable and non-transferrable to other EDCJCC programs.

We automatically charge the monthly tuition to your credit card or ACH account on file in your MyEDCJCC account. We accept Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express, and charge a 2.5% fee for credit card payments. We do not accept check or cash payments. We bill credit cards and bank accounts on the fourth (4th) of each month, or on the nearest business day.

We offer some limited scholarships for the upcoming school year. Please contact Lauren Eskovitz, Senior Director of Early Childhood Youth and Family Programs, for more information.

We believe that children are creative, competent and capable, and that our work as educators is to foster an environment that encourages discovery and exploration. Our educators ask questions, listen, collaborate, and document children’s work. We are a Reggio-inspired school, leaning on the thinking and teaching of Reggio Emilia. We work with children to create a classroom environment that allows for open-ended learning and discovery, we give children a chance to build their understanding of the world. We also believe that learning is a cooperative venture which includes other children, their teachers, their families, and our larger community. Literacy, math, social studies, science, music, and arts are all emphasized through a framework of hands-on contextualized experiences.

Yes. Our way of teaching, by having the students learn how to learn, prepares them for success in kindergarten and beyond. They will build the social emotional foundation to be successful in any educational environment. Our children leave school knowing how to name their emotions and those of their friends, how to be a good friend, and how to share, be part of a group, and be independent. They will build the foundation for literacy, math, and science, and for the creative, motor, and social skills they will need to do well in later schooling.

As a Jewish preschool we teach human and universal values through a Jewish lens. These include tikkun olam (healing the world), tzedakah (charity and justice), and equality for all. We learn about Jewish holidays and stories in an experiential way, such as participating in a matzah factory during Passover and exploring light during Chanukah.

Because our school is made up of Jewish, interfaith, and non-Jewish families, we do not assume that every family practices or knows about any aspects of Judaism. Therefore, we offer parent education about what the children are learning and why. Nothing that the children are taught about Judaism at school will supplant or interfere with your religious or cultural traditions at home. 

Every Friday morning we celebrate Shabbat as a whole school community – and family and friends are always welcome! We sing songs, say the blessings, and celebrate birthdays. When children go back to their classrooms after Shabbat, they have challah for snack.

We meet all ratios required by the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) for licensed childcare facilities:

18-24 months: 1:4 ratio; max 8 students per class
24-30 months: 1:4 ratio; max 12 students per class
30-48 months: 1:8 ratio; max 16 students per class
48-60 months: 1:10 ratio; max 20 students per class

We follow all OSSE (Office of the State Superintendent) Early Childhood qualification requirements for teachers. Please visit the OSSE website for more information about teacher qualification requirements.

We use the Seesaw app/platform to share photos, videos, and information about your child throughout the day. This is also where parents can message teachers. Each Friday, the Senior Director of Early Childhood, Youth, and Family (ECYF) sends a weekly newsletter highlighting the happenings in school and around the Center. Each classroom also sends a class newsletter called This Week We through the Seesaw app.

You can email teachers, the preschool director, and any administrative staff and expect a response within 24 hours.

The structure of a school day is flexible and guided by factors such as the children’s age, energy level and degree of engagement in a specific activity.

• 7:45–8:45 AM: Early Room drop-off (we ask that all children arrive by 9:15 AM)
• 8:45 AM–12:15 PM: Morning activities, such as morning meeting, intentional play, snack, exploration work, gross motor play, or weekly specials
• 12:15–1:00 PM: Lunch
• 1:00–3:30 PM: Nap or Quiet Room, and post-nap transitions
• 3:30–4:15 PM: Afternoon snack and intentional play
• 4:15–6:00 PM (Additional fees apply): Aftercare, including gross motor play; or afternoon enrichment classes