Free Childcare and Preschool Enrollment Fair Set for Saturday at Jackie Robinson Community Center

The city’s Office of the Young Child and the Early Care and Learning Collaborative will hold a free childcare and preschool enrollment fair from 9 to 11 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 17, at Jackie Robinson Community Center, 1020 N. Fair Oaks Ave., and no registration is required.

Local providers will be on hand so parents can explore programs and get connected in one place, according to Office of the Young Child Coordinator Eva Rivera. The fair comes as families across Los Angeles County face a shortage of publicly funded care: in 2025, 86% of the 159,909 infants and toddlers eligible for such care in the county went unserved, as did 34% of eligible preschool-age children, according to the county’s Local Child Care and Development Planning Council. Full-time child care in the county averaged 17% of household income, according to a 2025 Public Policy Institute of California analysis.

The Office of the Young Child grew out of an Early Child Development Policy the City Council adopted in 2015. The policy, revised in 2022, opens by stating that “we cannot wait until they enter kindergarten to promote their health, safety, and learning.” The office supports a network of early childhood hub sites serving Pasadena, Altadena and Sierra Madre.

State law now requires school districts to offer transitional kindergarten to every child who turns 4 by Sept. 1; the program is free but not mandatory, and families may choose state preschool, Head Start or private preschool instead, according to the California Department of Education. Pasadena Unified School District’s sibling and continuing-program priority application window for the 2027-28 school year opens Oct. 20 and runs through Nov. 10, and its first open-enrollment lottery, which requires applications for all transitional kindergarten students living in the district, runs Jan. 14 to Jan. 28, 2027.

California’s 2026-27 budget funds nearly 23,000 new subsidized child care spaces, after the expansion under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2021 pledge of more than 200,000 slots was paused for three years with almost 130,000 added, KQED reported. Heather Cleary, CEO of Peninsula Family Service, told KQED, “Adding slots alone doesn’t stabilize the childcare system.”

Locally, 56% of Altadena’s 50 child care homes and centers were damaged or destroyed in the Eaton Fire, affecting more than 1,000 spaces, the Los Angeles Times reported in March. Pacific Oaks and partners including the Pasadena Community Foundation and the city had distributed nearly $2 million to 43 providers as of March.

Questions about the fair go to the Office of the Young Child at (626) 744-4060 or OYC@cityofpasadena.net. For accessibility information or accommodations, contact CSC@cityofpasadena.net or (626) 744-7311; transit information is at https://www.cityofpasadena.net/pasadena-transit/.

Saturday, Oct. 17, 9 to 11 a.m. Jackie Robinson Community Center, 1020 N. Fair Oaks Ave., Pasadena. For more call (626) 744-4060 or visit https://www.cityofpasadena.net/office-of-the-young-child/. Admission: free.