Frequently Asked Questions

What are your program Hours?

Seedlings (2-young 3s year olds) Days: Monday-Wednesday (3 days) 9:00 AM-12:30 PM, with an option to extend to 1:00 PM

Saplings (3-5.5 year olds) Days: Monday-Thursday (4 days) 9:00 AM-1:00 PM

Banana Slugs (Extended) Care for Saplings children: Monday-Thursday 1:00-3:00 PM

City Saplings: Friday 9:00 AM-1:00 PM (children must be 4 by September of the school year to attend)

Is Oakland Saplings year-round?

Our start date is the Tuesday following Labor Day. Our final day of school will fall on the last full week of May. Any good-bye gatherings/graduations will occur during the finals days of May or first days of June. We will follow the local Oakland Public school calendar as closely as possible. We have 2 longer breaks during the school year, winter break (2 weeks) and spring break (1 week). During these breaks we still request tuition for the full month so we can retain our educators at a living wage. We take all the major holidays, Federal holidays and professional development days.

The calendar details as well as our parent handbook will be sent to our families mid-summer. We include several optional community days in our calendar, including volunteer opportunities to give back to the beautiful park spaces we use.

During our summer break we offer several weeks of summer camp, giving priority to any of our current and previous students.

What is your application process?

The first step in our process is for you to go through our website and familiarize yourself with who we are. Once this has happened we invite you to attend one of our Open Houses.

While attending an open house is helpful as a first step, it is not a requirement of our application process. Filling out an application is required. Once you start the application, you must complete it in one sitting.

Once your application is submitted, it will be reviewed, and you will be contacted about a good day and time for a zoom interview. The interview process is a space to get to know us better and for us to know more about you and your family (children do not need to be present). As we are a new program, we want to be able to get to know each child to make sure that our program is a good fit. Because of this we do require that your child attend at least one of the following:

A visit day with a caregiver (times and days TBD)
One week of our summer camp

After spending this time with your child, acceptance will be finalized.

When and how will I find out my child has been accepted?

We will take 2 weeks to review your application and reach out to you with any follow-up questions or meetings we may require such as a Zoom interview. Once these steps are completed, we will notify you of your child’s initial acceptance. Once accepted, a non-refundable deposit of $200 will be due within one month in order to hold your child’s place in the program. Acceptance will be finalized upon your child attending one of the following:

A visit to one of our playgroup days (10:00-11:00 AM) with a caregiver
Attending a full playgroup session (6 weeks)
One week of our summer camp

What is your tuition? And what does the sliding scale mean?

We want our program to be as accessible as possible, so we are operating on a sliding scale. Preschool can be an expensive undertaking. We ask that you consider how much you would normally pay for childcare and take into account paying your educators a living wage. Our sliding scale is between $20-30 an hour. If this sliding scale is still outside of your household’s price range, we encourage you to reach out to us at info@oaklandsaplings.com. We are open to working on individual payment plans for families.

Please see our Tuition Page for specific class prices.

Is there a sibling discount?

Being a sliding scale model, we ask families to reflect on their particular circumstances for how much they can monetarily dedicate to our program. That being said, if you have siblings, we ask that you strive to provide one full tuition and one with a 50% discount. For a family who is paying the $20/hour end of the pay scale, this looks like one full $30/hour tuition for two children.

What clothing will my child need?

We believe that there is no bad weather to enjoy nature in and clothing plays a huge part in how children engage comfortably within nature. As children are still learning how to regulate and understand their body’s needs, we ask that children come dressed, ready to engage in the weather of the day. For us that means layers, sturdy closed toed shoes, and items that can and will get dirty. On rainy days or days when there is a possibility to play in water, children should have properly fitted, water resistant gear to keep their bodies warm and dry. There is a great layering guide that can be found at Layering Guide (outdoorschoolshop.com) as well as their recommended gear for California climates at Gear Checklists (outdoorschoolshop.com). We highly recommend reaching out to local buy nothing groups as often this kind of gear is outgrown and still has usability.

What does my child need to have in their backpack?

A hearty snack and lunch
Filled water bottle
Hand towel -- to dry hands after washing
Placemat or cloth -- for mealtime(s) to help keep food from falling in the dirt
Sunscreen -- please apply before your child comes to school, teachers can reapply
Full set of extra clothing (underwear, socks, pants, shirt), in a sealed bag

if applicable… please add to your child’s bag/backpack:

Hat (for sun protection; for warmth; for rain)
2-3 side opening diapers & a small bag of wipes

Does my child need to be potty trained?

Children attending Oakland Saplings are not required to be potty trained. Potty training can be a journey for each family and we are here to help in the process. Please inform your educators when there are changes to this journey for your family so we can support you as best we can. If your child is in diapers, it is important to send open-sided diapers as they are the easiest for changing in our layered, weather appropriate gear. Due to the nature of our City Saplings program, we request that children be potty trained to attend.

How do potty breaks work in the forest?

We occasionally take trips to indoor, public bathrooms, otherwise, we support children in doing a “nature pee” in a private spot outdoors, away from our play areas, or we use our travel potty for bowel movements. Of course, accidents happen, so we do ask that you always pack a set of extra clothes, including underwear.

How do teachers communicate with families?

We see our school as a community that includes children, families, and educators. As a growing program we welcome questions, concerns, and feedback. We are happy to respond to these via email when we can. As most of our time is spent directly with the children, emails will be responded to during our dedicated collaboration hours once a week if we are not able to get to them earlier.

Teachers will also send out weekly emails detailing events from the week and any topics of interest the children have been exploring. The specific subjects of these may vary, but in the course of a month you can expect to receive emails including the following: what the whole class is focusing on (maybe developmental in nature), an individual email about your specific child, an in depth summation of a day or moment for the group, an update on project work, etc.

In addition to these emails, we will hold conferences for individual families twice a year. In the fall this conference will be accompanied by a brief write up but will be more of a conversation for who your child is, where they are now, and your hopes and dreams for them. In May we will hold a second conference that will be accompanied by a long write-up speaking to the growth we have seen in your child. If developmental or behavioral needs arise for your child, these will be discussed prior to the conference. We want to hold the conference space as a place to celebrate who your child is and how far they have come.

Drop-off and pick-up are often a time of connection for the children, so rather than using these spaces to communicate with us, we invite you to email us to set up a time to talk if the need arises.

What does “extreme weather” mean when it comes to closing the school?

Oakland Saplings will do everything we can to mitigate school closures, however there are some instances in which these are unavoidable. The realities of climate change are real and as Californias we need to be aware of unhealthy air or “smoke days.” As we do work with young children who fall into the “sensitive group” for air quality, we are unable to hold class when the air quality index reaches 100 and is climbing (we use the site Purpleair.com with the US EPA conversion). We are working on an alternative indoor space for these inevitable occurrences and will notify families as soon as we have a solution.

Extreme weather also includes prolonged periods of cold, heavy rains. As we are in a forested area, heavy rains can cause rock slides and weaken tree roots. If this kind of weather occurs, we will be looking at guidelines for the East Bay Regional Parks district for when it is safe to be out in the forest.

When will we be notified of school closures due to extreme weather?

As often as possible we will notify you the night before of a school closure. However, in times of closure due to air quality, we will make the call in the morning, as often the winds change overnight. In those cases, you will be notified by 7:30 AM.

Is Oakland Saplings a licensed preschool?

Oakland Saplings stays current with the information given by the California Association of Forest Schools. Community Care Licensing Division (CCLD) provides regulations for indoor childcare facilities and programs. While we are licensing exempt by the state, we follow all CCLD regulations that can be applied to our setting for the health and wellbeing of the children and educators.

Our passionate educators participate in a variety of professional development opportunities and training throughout the school year. Beyond early childhood education units, our educators are required to be up to date on CPR and First Aid certification, a negative TB test, pass a background check, COVID-19 vaccination.

The Alameda County Department of Public Health also provides guidance for childcare programs, and we will follow the Health Directives which allow us to operate safely. We will follow guidance from public health officials, and we will adjust policies and/or procedures if a change is made to the county Health Directives, or guidelines that pertain to childcare programs. Oakland Saplings will also create and update its own policies that reflect our values, prioritizing the health and wellbeing of the children, families, educators, and our community.

What is your policy on vaccines and immunizations?

Immunizations

We follow California law and require up to date immunizations for children enrolled at Oakland Saplings. Use this as a guide to see which immunizations are needed for your child.

Covid Vaccines

Vaccines against Covid 19 are strongly recommended but not required to attend Oakland Saplings. All families are required to regularly test for Covid to ensure the safety and health of children and educators in our program.

Parent Volunteers

We are excited to offer parent volunteer days in our 2023-2024 school year. We do require proof of parent immunizations (MMR, Dtap and TB) and a negative covid test to attend volunteer days.

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