Discover Our Classrooms
We welcome all families. We know that you are the most important person in your child's life—and their first teacher. We want to work with you to build a trusting relationship that supports your child. Teachers and families respect children's individual personalities and abilities. They also respect each other's differences, cultures, backgrounds, and opinions. Teachers incorporate each child's culture and home language into the program, and ask families to help choose materials that are familiar and meaningful to the children. Let's see what makes this great partnership work!
About Our Public Pre-K Classrooms
In September of 2012, Youth and Family Outreach collaborated with the Portland Public School system to initiate the first community-based public pre-k classroom in the district. The Pre-K curriculum was part of the Early Reading First program. Our facility was only one of a very few national pilot sites that engaged in this exciting and promising program developed by the Department of Education to promote early literacy. The research-based, published curriculum is now called PreK for ME. It is highly focused on language, literacy, and preparing children for kindergarten. What has been discovered through using this curriculum is that children are less likely to fall behind in their reading and writing later in public school.
The schedule for our Public Pre-K classroom is Monday - Friday from 8:30am - 3:00pm. YFO has wrap around care for the families that need full-day care. In addition to this, children will take a portfolio with them to kindergarten to inform their new teacher about what they have accomplished here at YFO.
This partnership has been so successful that in September 2023 YFO added a second Public Prek Classroom to our program.
Our Preschool Classroom
For 3.5 - 5 Year Olds.
About Our Toddler Classroom
For children ages 12 months - 2.5 years.
About Our Infant Room
For children ages 6 weeks - 18 months old.
Our infant room is a place where babies thrive with caregivers who understand how to promote their healthy growth and development. We will provide a schedule that is responsive to their needs, including appropriate stimulation and time to rest. Nurturing caregivers will talk to and play with the babies and provide constant love and attention. In our infant room they will have the opportunity to form the kind of comfortable, secure relationships with caregivers that will nurture their healthy emotional development. The infant caregivers at YFO understand and nurture babies’ development. They recognize the baby’s personal rhythms, style, strengths, and limitations and tune into these when planning the pace and time for eating, sleeping and playing.
Enroll with Us
Getting on Our Wait-list…
For children ages 6 weeks to 3 years old, we maintain a wait list.
Our wait list for all age groups is lengthy, and people are called for a slot on a first come, first served basis. We strongly suggest getting an application on the wait list as soon as possible. You can do this by going to Wait List Enrollment using the button below:
Enrolling with Us…
Once you have been notified that a slot has opened in the appropriate classroom an enrollment visit will be scheduled. We encourage you to schedule 1 to 1.5 hours for this visit so you can get to know the teaching staff, ask questions and make sure your child feels comfortable with the environment.
Once your child is settled into the classroom depending on their comfort level you may go to the office with the program director to fill out the enrollment paperwork.
At this time the first day is scheduled based on what your needs are. Prior to this day more visits may be scheduled if deemed necessary by the family based on the comfort level of the child.
At the time of enrollment you will be asked to submit payment for the first and last week of child care.
