Cambridge Preschool Program Lottery: How to rank your choices [Table Included]

The Cambridge Preschool Program (CPP) provides free preschool to all 4-year-olds (and some 3-year-olds) living in Cambridge.

But the options can be confusing — luckily, we've written this guide (and updated it already quite a few times as new questions and information come in). So please email us with thoughts and questions!

Main takeaway — If your child will need aftercare, choose either a DHSP preschool program or a private provider (don't choose CPS). While some CPS placements do have afterschool partnerships with private providers (more below), CPS placements don't usually allow for aftercare. 

The biggest reason to choose a CPS placement is that you want your child to have a better chance of starting Kindergarten at a sought-after CPS school, such as Tobin Montessori, Amigos Spanish immersion, or the MLK Mandarin immersion program. 

Application details:
CPP lottery applications are open from Wednesday, October 1 to Friday, November 14, 2025. You'll learn what you got in January 2026.

Your child is eligible if you live in Cambridge and they will be 3 or 4 years old by August 31, 2026.

🫤​ Still waiting for last CPP lottery's data. 
We will update this post when the data is released. The City has promised to do so! But we still don't have it. (This was one of the questions we got most frequently from parents applying to preschools at a recent schools fair.)

For now, this is the only data available. The most recent Kindergarten lottery data I could find is for January 2023. (The City stopped sharing the lottery data when CPP began, saying the old data wouldn't be helpful under the new system. But we believe it actually would be useful. We will update once they share this data.)

Questions & thoughts:

• If you have questions, contact CPP staff at [email protected] or 617.349.1798
• You can also ask us (or add to/correct this blog post) – Eugenia is at [email protected] (she is running for School Committee); Jill is [email protected] (she went through CPP last school year).

We'll follow up this "how-to" post with one on "policy problems/improvements." Please write into us with any policy thoughts or concerns. 

🥳 🥳 ​One last piece of good news before we get started:
Last school year (24-25), the City reported that 84% of families were satisfied with their match. So, as stressful as this process may be, you are most likely to end up happy at the end. 
​
Applying for your 3-year-old vs. 4-year-old

All 4-year-olds are guaranteed a CPP preschool placement. But only some 3-year-olds will get a spot. In brief:

• If your family makes less than 65% of HUD AMI (see details here or below), you'll be guaranteed a preschool spot.
• If your family makes more than that, you'll enter a lottery and may or may not get a spot.

The 3 year-old program is only for:

• The "Head Start" and "Special Start" programs in the Cambridge Public Schools (which will not later give your child priority for Kindergarten). 
• DHSP preschools — but at higher rates than for 4-year-old placements (you can also see the rates by scrolling to the bottom of this post).
• And the Tobin Montessori program (see more below). 

The 3 types of preschool placements to choose from

Choice #1 — DHSP. 
City-run preschools — through the Department of Human Services Programs (DHSP)

While the City’s DHSP preschools are mostly located in public school buildings, but they are run by the City, separate from the schools. 

There are six DHSP preschool locations: 

• Alewife (430 Rindge Ave, in North Cambridge)
• Windsor (119 Windsor St, in the Port, near Central)
• King Open (101 Willow St, in Wellington-Harrington)
• Martin Luther King (100 Putnam Ave, in Riverside bt. Harvard and Central)
• Morse (40 Granite St, in Cambridgeport)
• Tobin (227 Vassal Lane, in West Cambridge)

Pros/cons --

• 🥳 More coverage: DHSP preschools run full-day, year-long programs.
  • Note that the extra hours are mandatory in DHSP. If you need more flexibility (ex: your child will be somewhere else in summer), you may not want this placement.
• K lottery: Your child won't have an advantage getting into any particular Cambridge public school. You'll have to enter the regular Kindergarten lottery the January before that school year to be placed. 
• ​🥳 Inexpensive: While DHSP preschool costs vary by income [scroll below to see charts], it's a good deal for most families.
  • Some attend for free (those under 65% of HUD AMI - see chart).
  • Others pay sliding-scale tuition to cover the extended hours and summer, which maxes out at $400 per month.
  • Top earner note: if you're in the top income bracket, DHSP may or may not be a good deal compared to the private preschool you're most interested in. It's worth doing your homework in that case to see what the savings might (or might not) be.
  • 3-year-old rates are higher: Note that the rates for 3-year-olds are considerably higher (except for the lowest-income category, for whom it's still free). 

Source of greatest confusion — Going to DHSP at a school does NOT get you into that school for Kindergarten. (This was our most asked question at a recent preschool fair event.)

• ​Example: If you choose DHSP Tobin (located in the Tobin school), your child has no advantage in trying to get into Tobin for kindergarten (which is extremely difficult). (If you get in via the CPS Tobin placement - see directly below - then your child is indeed guaranteed Tobin thereafter.)
• DHSP at a school does not help your child get into that school's kindergarten!

 
Choice #2 — CPS. 
Cambridge Public School preschool classes 

CPS houses preschool classes within each of its 11 elementary schools. These follow the CPS school schedule and calendar.

Main Takeaway — CPS placements are binding for Kindergarten placements (whereas DHSP or private preschools put you back in the K lottery). You need to really want to go to the particular public school if you rank it on your form. Here are the details on the three schools we believe (without access to data as yet!) are most popular:

• The MLK Mandarin Immersion program has 1 CPP class and 1 Kindergarten class, so your odds seem better entering via a CPP placement, since most of the K seats will be filled with CPP graduates.
• The Amigos Spanish Immersion program has 1 CPP class and 2 Kindergarten classes, so the CPP advantage is lesser. 
• Tobin Montessori operates by its own rules — the typical age of entry is 3 years old, with only a few seats becoming available for older children. So apply when your child is eligible for the 3 year old lottery; after that, you should apply only knowing that your chance of gettin in is low. 

CPS placement Pros/cons --

• ☹️ Less coverage: CPS placements do not offer summer coverage.
• ☹️ No afterschool: CPP students attending CPS programs are not eligible for City-run afterschool.
  • However, CPS preschool students can still apply to private nonprofit programs for afterschool. 
  • One example is the CPP Peabody placement — Two parents told us that Cedar Childcare next door has set up a program where they will pick up the 3- and 4-year olds and walk them a block away to their school. 
  • Another is that Cambridge Montessori (private nonprofit preschool) will take CPP students from Tobin CPS.  
    
• 🥳 Guaranteed K: CPS preschoolers stay at the same school for K and do not need to re-enter the lottery. Thus, CPP is a chance to access to the most popular CPS schools that are harder to enter through the Kindergarten lottery. The City hasn't yet released a breakdown of how many kids went to each CPS preschool, but our understanding (based on the K lottery data and anecdotally) would be that these preschools likely fill up first:
  • Tobin Montessori (where most kids enter via the 3yo lottery!)
  • Amigos (Spanish immersion elementary/middle school)
  • Martin Luther King (Mandarin immersion elementary school)
• 🥳 Transportation: Bus transport is provided to eligible 4-year-olds (not 3-year-olds).
• Special needs: These programs include the city’s Special Start program which provides special education services and programs for children with a wide range of disabilities.
• Note on transferring: ​if you're assigned a CPS placement that's not your first choice, email Living Treasure Kathy Sampson (at the Student Registration Center) to get added to the waitlist for another CPS program. (A parent gave us this tip; it seems it's not well publicized.)

Popularity note: Except for the very popular programs (such as Tobin/immersion programs), the CPS placements tend to be least-chosen. Which makes sense given the significant coverage issue. 

 
Choice #3 — Community-based Partner Programs

CPP also contracts with private preschools. Hours, enrollment criteria and fees to cover extended hours vary from school to school. Some programs cater to families with particular employer or academic affiliations. Explore options with CPP’s useful search tool.

• Priority to those already enrolled: CPP seats at these programs are offered to eligible families currently enrolled before they are opened to the CPP lottery. Employer or academic affiliated programs offer seats to families with those affiliation first.
• More coverage: Many of these preschools offer families after hours and summer coverage for a fee.
• K lottery: Families must enter the K lottery for kindergarten placements.

 
CPP decisions tree — which of type of program should you choose?

1.) Is your child eligible for or already enrolled in an employer or institutionally-affiliated preschool that's part of CPP?

• If yes, and you want to enroll or stay there, contact the program directly. Confirm with your program director that you are CPP-eligible and that you don’t need to submit a CPP lottery application. 🥳 Congrats — you’re done!
• If no, continue to #2.

2.) Does your child have special education needs?

• If yes, determine if you need a Special Start placement through CPS .
• If no, continue to #3.

3.) Do I need a program with extended hours and summer coverage?

• If yes, buckle up. Here are things to consider for each program type:
  • 🥳 DHSP: These programs offer extended hours and year-round (summer included) programming free or on a sliding scale, depending on income. DHSP placements also lead to guaranteed placements at some DHSP afterschool programs once your child enters Kindergarten. (This is a big benefit, given that the City doesn't have enough afterschool for all families who want it.)
  • ☹️ CPS: The City does not offer afterschool for students in CPS preschools. Some private programs may offer afterschool programs for some schools. For example, Cambridge Montessori’s afterschool Passport program currently accepts students only from Tobin. But it's unclear whether the same rule will apply this coming school year. We suggest starting with the school's family liaison to see what options you may have.
  • Community-partner programs: Many, but not all, of these programs offer extended hours. Check individual programs for hours and rates.

Again, please email us with questions, or to correct or improve this post. 
Also email us with policy concerns, as we will follow up with a post focused on how the City could do even better with this program. 

• Eugenia - [email protected]
• Jill - [email protected]

See DHSP preschool costs below.