Lakota Preschool Program Closed to New Tuition-Based Students Next Year

Based on Lakota’s projected enrollment for preschool special education students, no additional students will be accepted into the tuition-based preschool program for the 2023-2024 school year. This means there will be no tuition lottery for the 2023-2024 school year.  

Current Lakota preschool students - as well as preschoolers who qualify for classroom-based special education services - are guaranteed enrollment in the Lakota preschool program hosted at VanGorden Elementary and Liberty Early Childhood School next school year.

Lakota’s preschool program is designed primarily to serve special education students and was established in response to special education laws and regulations. Because Ohio does not require universal preschool, the district is not required to offer a minimum number of tuition-based seats and must be responsive to the needs of its preschool special education students first.

Each year, to plan for the upcoming school year, Lakota analyzes projected student needs, yearly trend data, program capacities, and any updates to special education laws and regulations. Given all these factors, Lakota determined that next year it could accommodate just half of the total number of tuition-based students participating in this year’s program.

“We are happy to welcome back many of this year’s tuition students and will repeat this process again next school year to determine the feasibility of accepting more tuition students for the 2024-2025 school year,” said Lakota’s Executive Director of Special Education Andrea Longworth.