Early Education

About our Pre-K Program

The KC Pre-K Cooperative offers free Pre-K for 3 and 4 years olds in KC, MO who qualify for free and reduced price meals. Not eligible for free and reduced-price meals? Contact us to ask about other affordable options!

Our curriculum builds students’ academic, physical, emotional and social skills. Our programs offer before and after school care and nutrition programs as well as connections to a host of other services in the community.

Our partner programs have earned Missouri Accreditation.

Teachers are state certified just like a public school teacher.

Pre-K students receive automatic enrollment in our partner elementary charter school for Kindergarten. Della Lamb’s partner school is the Kansas City International Academy.

The Early Education program began in 1897 to meet the needs of KC’s low-income widowed and single Italian mothers who needed child care while they worked. Moreover, school age children were staying home from school to care for younger siblings, further denying themselves the education they needed to break the cycle of poverty.

Today, our state-accredited Early Education program continues to be a loving place for children to receive quality care. It serves children from six weeks of age to pre-K/five years of age; and 98 percent are from families living in poverty. Almost 40 percent of those children are from English language-learning families.

Email us at help@dellalamb.org or call us at 816-842-8040