Michigan is testing whether its “pre-K for all” push can reach beyond traditional classrooms by extending no-cost preschool to some home-based child-care providers—settings where young children may be taught by providers who are also running a household childcare business.
Under the pilot described by the Associated Press, eligible home providers can participate and offer no-cost pre-K to selected children aged 3 or 4 during the spring and summer, with Michigan’s Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement, and Potential saying it will support up to 75 to 80 students. The effort is funded through a federal grant totaling $1.5 million, MiLEAP said, and it is intended to cover more than tuition itself by providing additional program supports.
State officials said participating providers can receive funds for coaching, curriculum, materials and assessments as part of the test. The AP report described Lori Leggert, owner and teacher of The Sky’s the Limit Family Childcare, whose center operates in a home-like setting that includes animals outdoors and very young children as well as children in the pilot. Leggert said the approach benefits children of different ages in her care, not only those who qualify for pre-K.
Michigan’s broader pre-K framework relies on the Great Start Readiness Program, the AP reported, which allows 4-year-olds to attend no-cost pre-K. Michigan families can choose to enroll through options including schools, child care centers and churches, and almost 55,000 students are enrolled statewide, according to the report. The AP said Michigan’s program was previously limited to students from low-income families but has expanded so it is available to any student under Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s “pre-K for all” effort.
Advocates who support bringing home providers into the pre-K system said the pilot addresses an access gap in child care availability. A state policy document cited by the AP said home-based providers are “an untapped resource” for expanding pre-K, and it noted that Michigan had 3,344 group homes or family child care sites statewide in fiscal year 2024, based on a MiLEAP report to lawmakers.
Deb Dupras, executive director of Community Coordinated Child Care Association of the Upper Peninsula—known as 4C of the UP—told the AP it is important that home providers be part of the conversion. She said her organization connects parents to child care options and trains early child care workers, and she hoped the pilot would show children in home settings perform at least as well on assessments as those enrolled through pre-K in centers or schools. Joan Blough, vice president at the Early Childhood Investment Corporation, said families should have choice in where their pre-K happens, arguing that home settings can feel smaller and more intimate and allow more individualized attention.
The AP report also described parents weighing flexibility and quality when deciding where their preschooler attends. In Fowlerville, parent Taylor Provost’s 4-year-old attends Leggert’s program, while Provost said her older son previously participated in a Great Start Readiness Program at a public school. Provost said that while free options sound attractive, families often consider whether they feel comfortable with the setting and whether they want to keep their child there even if it costs money, describing the decision as a “no brainer” once home-based pre-K became no-cost. The report said Provost estimates she is saving $2,600.
The state is also making other staffing and program changes as it seeks to make pre-K for all work at scale. Katie Sloan, an assistant professor at Oakland University, told the AP it is smart to include home providers in the state’s pre-K efforts, particularly as Michigan changes rules to make pre-K for all a reality, including allowing more students per teacher and allowing programs to move from four days a week to five days. She said some children may benefit from home-based settings where they are not in a larger crowd and where provider-to-child ratios may be lower, and the report described Leggert’s classroom routine as including small-group instruction and breaks for younger children.
For Leggert and other home providers in the pilot, the AP report described the work as focused on early education for children aged 0 to 5, with the pre-K component enabling additional materials and outdoor play during the test period. Michigan officials said the assessment component will help determine whether children in the home-based program meet performance expectations as the state considers whether to extend the approach further.