Testimony Presented to Philadelphia City Council Education Committee
Inella Ray, Director of Parent Advocacy and Engagement
August 6, 2026
Good morning, Education Chair Isaiah Thomas and members of the Education Committee.
My name is Inella Ray, and I serve as the Director of Parent Advocacy and Engagement at Children First.
I would like to begin by thanking Education Chair Thomas for bringing this important, yet often invisible, issue into public view.
For far too long, pre-k pushout has operated in the shadows. Families often don’t realize their child has been suspended or expelled because it rarely comes in the form of a formal disciplinary action. Instead, they hear, “We can’t meet your child’s needs,” or, “They’re having a difficult day, so you’ll need to pick them up.” These experiences often go unrecognized and unreported, making it difficult to activate the policies, supports, and interventions designed to prevent exclusion.
From 2022 to 2025, I had the privilege of co-leading Supporting All Young Learners to Thrive alongside my colleague, Dr. Stephanie Blake. We partnered with parents, caregivers, educators, providers, and community leaders to understand why pushout happens and what it would take to build an early childhood system where every child has the opportunity to thrive.
What emerged was a clear consensus: Pre-k pushout is not the result of a single child’s behavior or a single educator’s decision. It is the predictable outcome of fragmented systems that leave families without support, educators without the resources they deserve, and children without timely access to the services they need.
That means the solution cannot rest on educators alone. It requires systems change.
First, we must invest in sustainable family navigation and Rapid Response supports so families have somewhere to turn before challenges become crises.
Second, we must invest in the early childhood workforce through coaching, infant and early childhood mental health consultation, behavioral supports, and high-quality professional learning. Supporting educators is one of the most effective ways to support children.
Finally, Philadelphia has an opportunity to build a truly coordinated system of care for young children and families.
Children don’t arrive at preschool with separate developmental, health, educational, and family needs. They arrive as whole children. Yet too often, we ask families to navigate fragmented systems that were never designed to work together.
Philadelphia has an opportunity to build something different: a coordinated care infrastructure that connects developmental screening, lead testing, infant and early childhood mental health, Early Intervention, family navigation, behavioral health, and high-quality early learning before unmet needs become barriers to learning, belonging, and thriving.
We know, for example, that the developmental and behavioral impacts of childhood lead exposure can mirror the very behaviors that too often result in children being excluded from classrooms. Yet many children are never identified through timely screening or connected to the supports they need. Too often, we respond to the symptoms while missing the underlying cause.
Today’s hearing gives us an opportunity to move this issue from invisible to impossible to ignore.
The question before us is not whether we know enough to act. We do.
The question is whether we are willing to move beyond managing the consequences of pushout and instead build an early childhood system intentionally designed to prevent it.
Because every child deserves to enter a classroom knowing they belong. Every family deserves a system that responds with support instead of exclusion. And every educator deserves the resources and partnerships necessary to help every child thrive.
Thank you.