An experiment involving preschool children is unfolding in South Los Angeles, one that aims to solve a persistent problem in the region’s stressed day-care industry: the lack of workers.
In a partnership between a Los Angeles Unified adult school and an early education center — which happen to share a campus — adult students receive tuition-free job training plus convenient access to the field work hours they need to earn their child development assistant permit.
“We know that there’s a big need in that space, and that many of our adult education students have this interest and these competencies,” said LAUSD board member Kelly Gonez. “It’s really about creating a pathway that’s going to help them meet the requirements and be able to enter the field.”
This small-scale experiment — and the goal to scale it — comes as LAUSD embarks on an ambitious plan to broaden its early education footprint, an initiative unanimously approved by the school board in April. The district’s planned expansion aims to provide access to affordable child care while building early loyalty with local families to help curb declining enrollment.
Part of that effort includes investing in the workforce. Twice a week, students from Maxine Waters Employment Preparation Center trek to early education center classrooms. They lead storytime, serve breakfast on plastic plates and in sippy cups, lead music and movement activities, and handle tears and rambunctious behavior.
“Why not let them get hands-on experience? Why just have them sit and watch?” said Rory Johnson, the child development instructor at the adult school.
Student Carmen Esquivel, who graduates this week, said the course, “from the beginning to now, has been an eye opener. You don’t have to just be a TA and work and just help out. You can actually continue your education, and I can actually run my own class one day.”
Instructor Lucretia Henderson, who teaches toddlers at the Bradley Early Education Center, which shares a campus with the Waters center, says she makes an effort to “think out loud” as she works, narrating so adult students can understand how she is engaging with the children. She helps them recognize developmental moments, such as when a child turns a book upright on their own upon realizing it’s upside down, signaling letter recognition.
“There’s nothing like reading it in a book versus actually experiencing it in a classroom,” Henderson said.
The child-care workforce needs
The child-care industry has faced a challenging employment landscape — a shrinking workforce. Roughly 20% of lead and assistant teachers in L.A. County leave child-care centers annually, according to a 2025 study from the UC Berkeley Center for the Study of Child Care Employment. Turnover among assistants is even higher at family child-care homes, hitting 28%.
Tuition-free job training programs like the one run by LAUSD offer an opportunity to lower barriers to entry and can serve as a starting point for other child-care careers, said Elena Montoya, associate director of research and policy at the UC Berkeley center. Grant programs often help cover additional costs such as CPR training and books, Johnson said. Still, low wages remain a problem, leaving child care to compete with other pathways available at the same school.
LAUSD adult schools operate seven child development programs across the district, though how students complete their field work varies.
At the Waters center, 137 students have completed the program since 2020. Roughly a third of its students enter a job in the child-care industry, Johnson said. Others have continued schooling or gone on to other industries. About a third of those students who are working in the industry have returned to jobs at LAUSD, whether at an early education center or in a transitional kindergarten classroom, according to her records.
As a part of the pathway, Johnson tailors classroom support to help her students who want to further their careers. For those who want to earn their associate’s or bachelor’s degrees and become a lead teacher, she encourages them to visit schools and makes the college application a part of their classwork. For students who wish to open their own family child-care home, she helps them connect with resources to create a business plan.
Johnson also checks in with all her cohorts every three months after they complete the program to offer additional guidance.
Since the Waters center formalized the partnership in 2021, one other adult school has adopted the arrangement and a second will do so soon. There may also be opportunities to set up similar partnerships as additional early education centers open near other adult schools, said Pia Sadaqatmal, the district’s chief of transitional programs.
In the classroom
Adult center classrooms mimic the look and feel of an early education classroom, complete with cubbies.
Adult students start the day with morning songs and dancing, helping them get accustomed to the work of educating 2- and 3-year-olds. Aside from learning to prepare lessons and navigate behavior issues, they complete activities similar to the children’s, including painting as well as outdoor play using toy hoops and bouncy balls. It is designed to take adults out of their comfort zone into a child’s world, Johnson said.
Esquivel remembers one course assignment in particular. Wearing a handmade sock puppet with large googly eyes she found at Walmart, Esquivel read “Snuggle Puppy!” in a high-pitched voice as her teenage daughter recorded.
It took her roughly 15 tries, she said. It wasn’t easy, but it got her more comfortable being playful and creative — skills she said she needed in the classroom at Bradley Early Education Center.
“It takes me back to my childhood,” Esquivel said. “I never pictured myself making voices. That’s another thing that I learned from this course — you don’t have to be so serious all the time.”
Now that Esquivel is graduating, she will enroll at East Los Angeles College to complete the requirements necessary to become a lead teacher.
LAUSD’s early education expansion
District administrators are expected to deliver an early learning plan by September to increase the number of affordable child-care options available to district families, establish relationships with local child-care providers and build a stronger pipeline for the early education workforce.
Officials say Bradley Early Education Center’s approaches to these key issues could serve as a jumping-off point for an LAUSD expansion in the industry.
Adult school students are able to enroll their own children at the Bradley Early Education Center, so they can attend class and study. The early education center is the first to test out evening care, a pilot program it rolled out in the fall to meet the needs of parents who work during the day and attend night classes or work an evening job.
“The pilot that’s going on at Bradley Early Education Center is both a way to provide greater opportunities for students and the young children that we’re caring for, but also to help build the next generation of early childhood educators,” said Gonez, who introduced the early learning resolution. “It’s a win-win.”
This article is part of The Times’ early childhood education initiative, focusing on the learning and development of California children from birth to age 5. For more information about the initiative and its philanthropic funders, go to latimes.com/earlyed.
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