The state has money to help needy parents defray the costs of preschool. Now it just needs more parents to apply.

Applications for the Preschool Open Doors program are due at the end of April. In previous years, the Department of Human Services has found itself with money left over in May.

DHS has an annual $8 million early-education budget aimed at widening access to quality early-education programs. The program pays for part or all of the tuition for eligible preschoolers.

Stacey Susuico, 29, said she wouldn't be able to afford her daughter's $825-a-month tuition without the assistance she gets from DHS' Child Care Connections — and she even gets a 50 percent discount for working in the preschool's office.

"I wouldn't be able to survive without it," she said.

For families who don't have much to spend on childcare, the subsidy could make the difference between a babysitter and an accredited center-based program, like the Seagull Schools' Early Education Center where Susuico's daughter goes.

Susuico said a center gives her the security of knowing many qualified adults are watching over her daughter. That wasn't true for some of the affordable baby sitters she looked at, where the adult-to-child ratio can be uncomfortably high.

"I would go to some homes that just had a blank white wall, no toys and 10 kids," she said. "You just don't feel comfortable leaving your child there."

State Rep. Lyla Berg, who is one of the Legislature's biggest champions for early education, calls preschool a "middle-class concept."

Studies have found that the higher a family's income, the more likely it is that the children will be exposed to preschool.

The Department of Human Services is trying to make preschool available to more lower-income families. The department also recognizes that it needs to expand the options to include children whose parents would rather they stay with family members than teachers.

The state has been working to expand options in general. Over the past four years, DHS' early-education budget has increased by $5 million to $8 million, and the total number of preschool spots has increased by 600, almost half at the 13 new Pre-Plus facilities that have opened since 2002.

APPLICATIONS LAGGING

The Pre-Plus program is a collaboration between several state agencies to build preschool facilities at the public schools, which are then run by Head Start or private providers. More than 300 children are enrolled at the 16 Pre-Plus sites around the state.

In addition, the state has been offering incentive bonuses to encourage private preschools to improve and expand their programs to include more disadvantaged children.

However, the state hasn't been overwhelmed by applications for its Preschool Open Doors program, which offers tuition subsidies to needy 4-year-olds, as well as 3-year-olds with special needs.

Currently, the program helps pay full or partial tuition for 1,459 preschoolers across the state, but it could be helping more. "We do have slots and we want to get people in there," said Alan Eyerly, a spokesman for DHS.

One of the questions, however, is whether the preschools have the space to accommodate a sharp rise in students. Along with cost, inadequate capacity is believed to contribute to why roughly 39 percent of kindergartners start out with no prior school experience.

"One of the things that we always worry about is whether we have enough slots available for everyone who applies for these opportunities," said Julie Morita, the acting administrator for the DHS Employment/Child Care Office.

She pointed out, however, that there might be preschoolers already enrolled in centers who qualify for the program but have never applied, so in addition to getting the word out in the community, the department is making sure preschool parents know the subsidies are available.

This push for applicants should give the state a better idea of how much it needs to expand preschool capacity and how much more emphasis it should give to early education programs that allow parents or other caregivers to participate.

"Hawai'i continues to be the type of society that we let our parents or grandparents or aunties and uncles take care of the young," said Henry Oliva, DHS deputy director.

"That's probably part of what has contributed to our enrollment issue."

For those families, preschool subsidies might not be attractive, but traveling preschools and parent-participation classes might be an appealing way to keep families together while exposing children to preschool-like environments.

LOW-WAGE JOB

Another obstacle is finding enough qualified teachers to open more classrooms.

While officials across the state say they want a qualified teacher in every classroom, it has not given college students enough incentive to go into a field known for low pay.

Chuck Larson, executive director of Seagull Schools, said staffing shortages due to low wages is the biggest problem at his six daycare centers.

In fact, two classrooms at the 'Ewa Beach center have remained vacant since the school opened in February because Seagull can't find teachers.

"We're able to fill our classes as soon as we hire teachers," he said.

Seagull has been using state incentives to try to make teaching at its centers more attractive. DHS offers per-pupil incentives for adding slots for children, enrolling staff in professional development programs and adopting quality standards.

As an accredited school, Seagull gets about $20,000 a month for the 200 low-income students it serves.

Seagull took advantage of a $1 million grant from the state to open its 'Ewa Beach school, and $300,000 to build two new classrooms in Kailua.

Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.