Case Study: Helping Families Discover Their Best Early Learning Options

This past school year, California reached a major milestone: free Pre-K for all 4-year-olds. Built on more than a decade of expanding what the state calls transitional kindergarten, the effort created the largest universal preschool program in the country.

For tens of thousands of families who previously had few affordable options, the promise of free, high-quality Pre-K suddenly became real. But it may not be the best option for all families and four-year-olds, who still have other affordable and appropriate early learning opportunities.

New options came with a basic question from parents: Where do I even start?

We partnered with the Alameda County Office of Education and the Alameda County Early Childhood Education Planning Council to help close the gap between availability and access and make it easier for families to enroll.

The Challenge

County Offices of Education are structured to communicate with districts, not families. Their websites naturally reflect that structure.

Families, meanwhile, are searching for answers about age, eligibility, cost, and location.

California’s early learning system is also built on a mixed-delivery model. Pre-K programs are offered through school districts, child care centers, family child care homes, Head Start programs, and other providers.

This approach expands access and gives families more choices. But it also means there is no single place for families to start.

Families often encounter a maze of websites, program names, and unfamiliar terminology. Many assume Transitional Kindergarten is their only option. Others worry that if they choose a different program, their child might lose a spot in kindergarten later.

In reality, families have more options than ever. But the system lacked a clear, family-friendly way to explain those choices.

Strategy Sprints: Clarifying the Real Goal

We began by bringing county leaders and early childhood partners together for focused strategy sprints.

At first glance, the goal seemed straightforward. Build a website about Pre-K options.

But as we worked through audience needs and system realities, it became clear we were dealing with something else.

We needed to help families navigate a mixed-delivery system that was never designed with a single front door.

Through surveys of more than 180 providers and 350 families, the message was clear. Families needed:

• One place to see their options
• Plain language without acronyms
• Multiple languages
• Clear next steps

Clarity became the strategy.

Designing for Families First

At LightBox, we often ask clients to consider what their communications are organized around.

For Alameda County, the question was simple. Are we organizing around internal structure, or around audience experience?

Shifting that frame changed everything.

Rather than embedding content inside an existing government website, we helped launch a standalone, family-facing resource: AlamedaCountyPreK.org

We built the site around how families actually browse.

Mobile-first design was essential. In fact, 75 percent of early visitors accessed the site on a phone.

Navigation also needed to reflect family questions rather than agency categories.

We wanted parents to understand the different types of programs available, think through what matters most for their family, and identify the questions they should ask when exploring providers.

Throughout the site, we kept language intentionally plain. We avoided jargon and insider terminology and focused on information families could use right away.

The result is a clear entry point into a complex system.

Early Results: Families Are Finding the Door

Even the most thoughtfully designed site can’t help families if they don’t know it exists.

As part of the broader outreach effort, the County supported the launch with paid promotion and community outreach. This included:

• Paid social and digital ads
• Streaming placements
• Mall advertising
• Bus ads across the county
• Outreach through local networks and trusted partners

Community-based organizations and early learning providers also helped spread the word. They shared the site with families who were already asking questions about preschool options.

Early traction shows strong momentum:

• 11,000+ unique visitors in the first six months
• Approximately 400,000 digital impressions per month
• Approximately 140,000 impressions from bus and digital placements
• 50 percent of traffic driven by social media
• More than 41 percent of visits from direct traffic, suggesting strong partner and offline visibility

The website has also been featured as a statewide example for helping families explore care and early learning options.

Reminding Parents: You Got This!

Choosing a Pre-K program is a big decision for families–and while a website can’t make that decision for them, it can help families understand their options, clarify their priorities, and take the next step with confidence.

By shifting from institutional language to family-first design, Alameda County created a clearer entry point into a complex system.

Families and children deserve to understand all their options so they can pick the best location, environment, and learning style for their family. Parents know what’s best for their kids, but they can need a confidence boost when having to choose between many–maybe unfamiliar–options. By bringing these various systems together on one site, families can weigh pros and cons and take their next steps with confidence. 

Being a parent is hard! With the support of the ACOE and ACECEPC, we hope we have made at least one parenting challenge a little easier.

Is your organization ready to make your programs easier to find, understand, and use? Get in touch: info@lightboxcollaborative.com