Preschool Enrollment FAQ

For September starts, most preschools open enrollment in January or February. That timing matches when families are thinking seriously about fall plans; it also gives you several months to fill your roster and manage the inevitable round of cancellations.

If you run a lottery, the submission window can be shorter. Announce it in early January, collect applications for two to three weeks, then draw and notify by February. Families who received a spot have time to confirm; families who didn’t land on the waitlist in priority order.

In a well-run system, a parent logs into a household account, selects the age group and schedule that fits their child, provides the required information, and pays — in one session, on any device. No paper forms, no emailed PDFs, no phone call to confirm receipt.

SwiftEnroll’s preschool enrollment software is built around this flow. A household account stores all children in the family; if a parent has a two-year-old and a four-year-old enrolling in separate programs, both go through one checkout. Coordinators see real-time rosters as registrations come in.

When a class or age group reaches capacity, incoming registrants are placed on a waitlist in order. If a spot opens — because a family cancels, transfers a child to a different schedule, or simply doesn’t show — the next family in line receives a notification and a window to complete enrollment. If they don’t respond in time, the offer passes to the next family.

SwiftEnroll automates this entire sequence. Your staff doesn’t have to call down a list manually; the system handles notification, tracks responses, and moves the queue forward without intervention.

First-come, first-served waitlists work when your program fills over a few days or weeks. When spots are gone within minutes of opening — or when families without flexible schedules are routinely shut out — a lottery is more defensible.

A lottery with a defined submission window (say, two weeks in January) treats a parent who submits on day one the same as one who submits on day fourteen. Families accept “you weren’t selected” far more gracefully than “it was full before you even heard about it.” For programs with equity goals or publicly funded spots, a randomized draw is often required.

The offer moves to the next family in line; this is automatic in SwiftEnroll. The window is configurable — most preschools use 24 to 48 hours — and families receive a follow-up reminder before the window closes.

Set the window based on your program’s pace. A slower-filling program can give families a week; a high-demand program may need to move faster to avoid leaving spots open late into spring.

Deposits collected at enrollment — not invoiced after the fact — give your program both confirmed revenue and a stronger indication that the family will actually show up in September. Set the deposit amount in your software and families pay it when they register; the balance can be invoiced later or structured as an automatic charge.

SwiftEnroll supports deposits as the first payment in an installment plan. A family pays a deposit in February and has the remaining tuition auto-charged in August; nothing falls through the cracks on either end.

Yes. Installment plans are one of the most effective tools for making preschool accessible to families who can’t pay the full year’s tuition upfront. The setup in SwiftEnroll is straightforward: define the total amount, the deposit, the installment dates, and the charge method. Families see the schedule before they enroll; payments process automatically on the scheduled dates.

Installment plans also reduce late payments. When the timing is agreed to upfront and charges are automatic, the coordinator doesn’t chase balances.

SwiftEnroll supports sibling discounts applied automatically when a second or third child from the same household enrolls. You define the discount rules — a flat reduction per additional sibling, a percentage off, or a custom amount — and the system applies them at checkout. Parents don’t need to request a discount code or email the office.

For programs that also offer financial aid or need-based adjustments, SwiftEnroll supports custom pricing at the enrollment level; see our preschool industry page for more on how pricing tiers work.

Yes. Each age group runs as its own program with its own capacity, schedule options, and pricing. A parent sees only the programs their child’s age qualifies for. Your staff sees each group’s roster, waitlist, and enrollment count separately — no mixing of two-year-olds and five-year-olds in the same capacity pool.

This matters especially for programs with ratio requirements or rooms that are licensed for specific age ranges; SwiftEnroll lets you enforce those limits at the program level.

Household accounts in SwiftEnroll include fields for emergency contacts and authorized pickup persons. Parents manage this information themselves and can update it anytime; your staff sees the latest version in the admin dashboard.

You can also require these fields before enrollment completes, so a family can’t accidentally register without providing them.

Yes. SwiftEnroll lets you create separate pricing tiers for different schedule types within the same program — half-day, full-day, early drop-off, extended care. Parents choose the schedule that fits their family; your roster reflects what each child is enrolled in.

For programs with complex scheduling (two days a week vs. five, or mixed half-and-full-day cohorts), you can configure as many schedule types as your program needs.

That depends on your policy, but most preschools do require annual re-enrollment to confirm the child’s schedule and collect any updated information. SwiftEnroll supports a priority re-enrollment window for returning families — you open re-enrollment to existing families before the general public, which reduces churn and rewards families who’ve been with you.

If you’re thinking through what makes families trust the enrollment process in the first place, the post on preschool open enrollment as a trust test covers the underlying dynamic in more depth.