COOPERATIVE PARENTING EDUCATION is learning about human behavior and how to grow self-aware, compassionate, resilient humans who thrive in equitable, inclusive communities. With guidance from trained early-childhood educators coupled with classroom observation, discussion groups, evening classes, and school governance, adults learn:
Child Development Milestones
Adult students learn how young humans develop and when and how skills are acquired. They learn to understand informed age-appropriate expectations for their child’s behavior.
Foundational Principles & Tools
Adult students explore sound principles and tools based on Adlerian psychology and brain science data including:
• the power of co-regulation and teaching regulation skills
• deep active listening and empathy skills
• the power of intentional language
• the difference between praise and encouragement
• varied approaches for problem-solving and age-appropriate power sharing
• parenting tools and strategies that build the foundation for equity and kindness in the home and beyond
Strong Communities
Adult students learn to work together to create a well-developed, early-childhood classroom environment and a well-run, non-profit business. They work through challenges and build cohesive communities that often last for years.
Workforce Skills
Adult students run their child’s cooperative preschool and, in the process, learn to:
• acquire and grow skills in fields around the education space
• lead and participate in board meetings
• manage the budget of a non-profit business
• hire, support and evaluate employees
• create and support non-profit fundraising opportunities
• participate in a community that creates opportunities, solves problems, learns together and extends care to everyone
Parenting Education is human education. Through learning with and teaching our children, caregivers of small children reflect on their own family-of-origin stories, explore beliefs and past experiences, build big-picture parenting skills and build new skills to create more harmonious, resilient families and communities.
Washington State Parenting Education programs and their co-op preschools are at risk of closure by September 2026 due to a 2025-26 SBCTC decision. The Organization of Parenting Education Programs (OPEP) is seeking a restoration of Parenting Education programs to the 2025-26 funding model to keep parent education accessible & affordable for over 5,000 Washington State families annually. This is not an ask for new or more funds from the state, but simply to include Parenting Education in the funding as it previously has been since the late 1960’s.
Cooperative Preschools and Parent Education Programs have been a part of the Washington Community and Technical College system since their inception in 1967. Parenting Education (PAED) has been recognized as part of workforce and adult vocational education for over a century, tracing its origins back to the federal Smith-Hughes Act of 1917. A vital part of Washington culture since the 1940s, cooperative preschools have shaped multiple generations of educated parents and connected children through play-based learning opportunities.
The Washington State Board of Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) claim that PAED programs cannot prove that classes lead to workforce outcomes; despite collected evidence & data showing that a majority of staff across 91 WA preschools were or are previously enrolled students. Students who are disproportionately impacted by caregiving and childrearing are filling gaps in their employment & education through participation in volunteer board of directors or similar positions; empowering them through opportunities in non-profit management, stakeholder relations, fundraising, and more. The experience and education enrolled caregivers earn is put into current & future careers.
As of June 30th, 2026 — no WA Parenting Education programs are accepted by the SBCTC; with all processes to approve new or update existing certificates being rejected. Therefore, the WA SBCTC has determined that Parenting Education programs and their co-ops are not qualified for state funding. Consequently, the former 91 co-ops which existed at the end of June 2026 have been reduced to just 43 Cooperative Preschool programs under the umbrella of their affiliated colleges. Moreso, remaining PAED programs have an estimated timeline of one year (September 2027) before closure, making intervention from our Legislators especially important. OPEP is working on several fronts to restore funding including: collaboration with legislators to ask for a proviso, identification of scientific studies on the impact of caring adults' connection to children in their formative years, and collection of vital data such as: PAED workforce outcomes & statements of support from key leaders & alumni.
The SBCTC has removed the opportunity for 9,000 students (4,500 adults and their 4,500 children) to receive data-driven, science-based, and trauma-informed education; also notably disproportionately affecting both female students and employees. Lake Washington Technical Colleges' most recent demographic information shows that over 60% of the 550 enrolled Parenting Ed students who will lose a schooling option are women, and 100% of the 15 staff members who will be losing their employment are women. The SBCTC decision does not make Washington better. Parenting & caregiving is one of the most rewarding, yet challenging aspects of humanity, and should be a Washington State priority. Caregivers who are connected, educated, and empowered are benefit all — the workforce, the community, and themselves.
You can support working class families today by asking your legislators to join in the fight to save Washington’s Parenting Education programs and by go to https://sites.google.com/view/save-opep/home?authuser=0 for more information.
**A legislative proviso is a specific condition, restriction, or instruction added to a bill or budget that directs how funds must be spent or carves out an exception to a general law.
The Organization for Parent Education Programs and AFT Washington are seeking a legislative Proviso** to maintain state funding for Parent Education programs in SBCTC colleges.
Based on calculations from SBCTC’s data, $5,780,705 would restore funding to 2024/2025 levels.
College-based Parent Education (PE) programs have been housed within and supported by SBCTC since the creation of the SBCTC in 1967. College-affiliated preschools have existed since the 1940’s.
PE programs served 6,077 adult learners and 4,500 young children in 2024/2025.
SBCTC excluded Parent Education students from the funding allocation beginning in 2026. By the end of the 2026/2027 school year, all college-based Parent Education programs, and the 96 affiliated preschools are facing closure.
Washington State (DCYF) recognizes the importance of the Protective Factors Framework as a child abuse prevention model. College based Parent Education curriculum is rooted in the Protective Factors Framework.
Parent education has proven positive outcomes in academic achievement, mental health, and economic mobility for parents and children, while also showing decreases in child abuse and crime rates.
“Support for parenting education programs in Washington state strengthens families and enhances the ability to provide healthy development of our state's children,” Gov Jay Inslee, 2013.
Parent education classes that integrate college level coursework in early childhood education, human development, family systems, and small business management.
High-quality early learning opportunities for children that employ developmentally appropriate practice with the lowest adult to child ratio in the state.
Cooperative preschools are the most affordable early learning opportunities that are not income dependent. College-based Parent Education and affiliated preschools cost the state $915 per adult/child pair. ECEAP costs the state $9,385 per preschooler.
College instructors supervise the practicum both in the classroom and in the boardroom.
Affiliation with the college allows the small nonprofits access to affordable insurance, guidance in facilitating the operations of a nonprofit business, and provide continuity as the board of directors change year to year.
With a Proviso that assures state funding from SBCTC to college-based Parent Education programs, colleges will continue to offer these historic and vital programs.