San Francisco PFA and California UPK, explained.

San Francisco families have two free or heavily subsidized preschool paths, and they are run by two different governments. Preschool for All is a city program for San Francisco residents. Universal PreKindergarten, including transitional kindergarten, is a state program that every California district is rolling out. They overlap, they stack, and almost no one explains how they fit together. This guide does.

The short version: San Francisco is one of the most expensive child care markets in the country, the public programs are real money in your pocket, and none of them fully replaces a working family's need for full-day care. Knowing which program covers which hours is the difference between a manageable year and a $30,000 one.

Two programs, two governments

It helps to keep the layers straight from the start. Preschool for All (PFA) is a City and County of San Francisco program, administered by OECE with First 5 San Francisco. It is funded locally, including by the 2018 Proposition C commercial-rents tax, and it is available only to San Francisco residents. Universal PreKindergarten (UPK) is a statewide California initiative led by CDE; its best-known piece is transitional kindergarten (TK), a grade your local district runs inside public elementary schools.

Underneath both sit the subsidies that cover infants and toddlers, the years before any free preschool starts: the General Child Care program (often called CCTR) and the Alternative Payment voucher program, both now administered by CDSS. Quality Counts California rates participating sites. A San Francisco family often touches three or four of these systems across a child's first five years.

San Francisco Preschool for All (PFA)

Preschool for All is a tuition-credit program. It does not run its own schools; it lowers what you pay at a participating San Francisco preschool. Every San Francisco resident family with a child in the year before kindergarten is eligible for the base PFA credit regardless of income, and families with lower incomes qualify for a larger Early Learning Scholarship (ELS) on top, which can bring tuition to little or nothing at a participating site. The 2018 Proposition C expansion funded both deeper scholarships and higher pay for early educators.

Two honest caveats. First, the base PFA credit is a contribution toward part-day preschool, not a full ride; at many sites it offsets a few hundred dollars a month rather than the whole bill. Second, the larger income-based scholarships are oversubscribed, and demand for the highest-rated sites runs ahead of supply. San Francisco families who want a specific program apply early and treat placement as competitive.

California UPK and transitional kindergarten

Universal PreKindergarten is California's commitment to offer a free public pre-kindergarten year to every four-year-old. The centerpiece is transitional kindergarten, which California expanded under AB 130 so that, as of the 2025 to 2026 school year, every child who turns four by September 1 is eligible for a TK seat in their public school district. TK is a real grade: it runs on the district's school-day, school-year calendar, taught by a credentialed teacher, and it is free.

In San Francisco, TK is run by SFUSD and enrolled through the district's school-choice process, not through OECE. UPK is the umbrella term that ties TK together with the California State Preschool Program, Head Start, and expanded-learning after-school options, so that a family can, in theory, assemble a full day from public pieces. In practice the pieces have different applications, calendars, and deadlines, which is the part that trips families up.

The subsidies underneath: CCTR and vouchers

PFA and TK only reach children in the preschool and pre-kindergarten years. For infants and toddlers, the relevant help is California's subsidized child care, administered by CDSS. The General Child Care program (CCTR) funds seats directly at contracted centers and family child care homes. The Alternative Payment program issues vouchers that families use at a provider of their choice, including license-exempt care by a relative in some cases.

Eligibility is income-based, generally tied to a share of the state median income, with priority for the lowest-income families and for children referred by child protective services. Families typically apply through a local resource and referral or alternative-payment agency; in San Francisco, OECE coordinates much of the early-care subsidy intake. Quality Counts California, the state's quality rating and improvement system, publishes tier ratings that help families compare participating sites on the same scale.

The wrap-around math

San Francisco daycare prices are among the highest in the country. In 2026, full-time center-based infant care across the city runs roughly $2,300 to $3,100 per month, and preschool-age care roughly $1,900 to $2,600 per month, per the National Database of Childcare Prices for San Francisco County and DaycareSquare's operator survey. Licensed family child care homes typically run 10 to 20 percent below center rates. These are ranges, not single figures; the high end clusters in Noe Valley, the Marina, Pacific Heights, and the inner Sunset, the lower end toward the Excelsior, the Bayview, and Visitacion Valley.

How to apply

1. Map your child's age to the right door. Under three, look at CCTR and Alternative Payment vouchers through OECE. At three to four, look at PFA and the California State Preschool Program. Turning four by September 1, look at SFUSD transitional kindergarten.
2. Apply to TK through SFUSD. TK enrollment runs through the district's student-assignment process on the district calendar, with a main round in the winter for the following August. It is separate from any preschool application.
3. Apply to PFA and scholarships through OECE. The Early Learning Scholarship and PFA credit are handled by the city; start at the OECE and First 5 San Francisco enrollment pages and apply early, since the larger scholarships are oversubscribed.
4. Line up wrap-around care. If you choose TK, confirm before-care, after-care, and summer coverage in parallel, because the school day will not cover a full work schedule.

Common questions

Can we use PFA and TK together? Not for the same hours in the same year. A four-year-old is generally either in TK or in a participating preschool, not both for the core day. Families often use PFA or CSPP for the year before TK, then move into TK the next year. The subsidies for under-fours can run before either.

Is TK the same as kindergarten? No. TK is the year before kindergarten, with its own play-based standards. Your child still attends kindergarten the following year.

Do we have to be low-income? For TK, no, it is universal for age-eligible four-year-olds. For the base PFA credit, no. For the larger Early Learning Scholarship, CCTR, and vouchers, yes, those are income-tested.

Where to go next

For what families actually pay across the city's neighborhoods, see our San Francisco daycare cost guide and the broader California cost overview. The San Francisco city directory covers neighborhoods and listings, and the California state guide walks through licensing and Quality Counts California statewide.

If you are still sorting out income-based help, read our subsidized daycare explainer and a deeper California UPK explainer. Before any tour, use the cost calculator and the comparison checklist to estimate your real out-of-pocket with PFA, TK, and the subsidies factored in.