Helping Parents Navigate the Early Childhood Education Enrollment Process - Experimental Evidence From New Orleans

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by dabgoudw

Helping parents navigate early childhood education enrollment involves searching, applying, verifying eligibility, and registering with publicly funded programs, yet many families fail to complete key verification steps despite clear interest. An RCT with New Orleans families tested low-cost weekly text message support during eligibility verification. Adding text reminders increased verification rates by about seven percentage points, and personalized friendly messages improved enrollment for some groups, revealing concrete parent-administrator obstacles.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages24

Reading Time1 h 0 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Enrollment barriers and need for support

Study Design

Randomized controlled trial and messaging groups

Intervention Effects

Verification and enrollment outcomes

Implementation Insights

Parent-administrator exchanges and obstacles

Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis September 2020, Vol. 42, No. 3, pp. 307–330 DOI: 10.3102/0162373720922237 Article reuse guidelines: [sagepub.com/journals-permissions](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[ ](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)© 2020 AERA. [http://eepa.aera.net](http://eepa.aera.net) Helping Parents Navigate the Early Childhood Education Enrollment Process: Experimental Evidence From New Orleans Lindsay Weixler Tulane University Jon Valant Brookings Institution Daphna Bassok Justin B. Doromal University of Virginia Alica Gerry Tulane University Enrolling in publicly funded early childhood education involves searching for programs, applying, verifying eligibility, and registering with the program. Many families do not complete this process, despite demonstrated interest. In this study, we assessed support for families as they verify eligibility as a means for increasing enrollment completion rates. Working with district administrators, we randomly assigned families to receive either (a) the district’s usual, modest communications; (b) the usual communications plus weekly text message reminders with a formal tone; or (c) the usual communications plus weekly personalized, friendly text message reminders. Text message reminders increased verification rates by seven percentage points (regardless of tone), and personalized messages increased enrollment rates for some groups. Exchanges between parents and administrators revealed the obstacles parents confronted. Keywords: early childhood, educational policy, parents and families, experimental design, mixedmethods Public investment in early childhood education (ECE) has risen substantially over the past two decades (Friedman-Krauss et al., 2019), but the process of finding and enrolling in ECE programs remains difficult for many families (Bassoket al., 2018) . Applicants to publicly funded programs often confront a multistep process—search, apply, verify eligibility, and register—that demands sustained attention in navigating a complex set of requirements. Research from K–12 and higher education indicates that complexity in the choice and enrollment processes can result in poor outcomes, such as enrolling in undesired programs or not enrolling at all (Bettinger et al., 2012; Klasik, 2012; Schneider et al., 2000) . Similar obstacles exist for families choosing ECE programs, though the ECE choice process has received less attention from researchers. These Weixler et al. obstacles may be particularly burdensome—and consequential—for low-income families. Using a randomized controlled trial (RCT), we examined a text-messaging intervention designed to help low-income parents in New Orleans verify eligibility for a publicly funded ECE seat (a necessary but insufficient step for enrolling) . Through the city’s unified enrollment system, OneApp, parents request seats in publicly funded ECE programs. These seats are generally targeted to children from low-income families. As a result, ECE applicants must provide documents, in person, to verify their eligibility. In 2016–2017, about 35% of the families who submitted an ECE application through the OneApp did not complete the verification step. These families demonstrated their desire for a placement in a publicly funded ECE program and then lost that opportunity by not completing verification.1 We conducted this RCT in partnership with the district office that oversees OneApp.2 Our aim was to help them address barriers in the ECE enrollment process. This RCT focused on the verification step of that process because (a) district officials identified verification as a key barrier to program access; (b) verification occurs after parents submit an online application with up-to-date phone numbers, making a text-message RCT feasible; and (c) we can observe applicants’ verification status in the district’s data system. Drawing on research showing that personalized reminders (Castleman & Page, 20

FAQs

What problem does the study address in early childhood education enrollment?

The study addresses families’ difficulty completing the verification step required after submitting a publicly funded ECE application, which often prevents enrollment despite families’ initial interest.

How was the text-messaging intervention tested?

Using a randomized controlled trial, families were assigned to a control group receiving district communications only, or to groups that also received weekly text reminders either in a formal tone or personalized, friendly tone.

What were the key outcomes of the different message types?

Text reminders increased verification rates by about seven percentage points regardless of tone, while personalized messages improved enrollment rates for some groups.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by dabgoudw