Who we Are

Tulsa Educare, Inc. (TEI) is a not-for-profit organization created to provide high-quality early childhood education and care to low-income families living in Tulsa. TEI was created through a partnership with Tulsa Public Schools, George Kaiser Family Foundation, Family and Children’s Services, Tulsa Community Foundation, Community Action Project of Tulsa County, the University of Oklahoma and the Bounce Learning Network. TEI currently provides year round, full day education and care for more than 350 Tulsa at-risk children and their families.

Tulsa Educare’s mission is to help break the cycle of poverty with a flagship program in very early childhood education and through transfer of best practices to other Tulsa programs. In Tulsa County, nearly half of all children ages five and under (almost 17,000 children) live in low-income families. Approximately 75% of these children live in working parent households and rely on outside care. At a time when brain development is at its peak, virtually none of these children receive optimal education and care. Even at age three, many disadvantaged children are denied the benefit of adequate educational opportunity. Due to financial constraints within families and a public learning system that starts educating children too late, low-income children often end up in substandard care that does not provide the critical early learning support that they need. Early care can ensure long-lasting gains in cognition, social functioning and success by many measures.

Tulsa Educare is also part of a national network of agencies that are attempting to make a difference in the lives of very young, vulnerable children and their families through strong public-private sector partnerships. Through a consortium of partners, Educare supporters create, provide and promote the highest quality outcome-based learning environments for families and their children (ages prenatal to five years) who are at-risk for school failure. Educare principles and practices are based on continual research and implementation within the field of early childhood education. The success of the children who enter this program demonstrates the economic value of investing in the earliest years in order to prevent the need for costly interventions later.

TEI currently has two state-of-the-art early childhood schools in Tulsa and is constructing a third. These schools have been designed and constructed with children’s learning in mind. Ample physical space and light allow babies, toddlers and preschoolers to explore, learn and develop. Classrooms are safe, comfortable places that promote bonds between the teaching staff and young children. They also promote bonding between child and family by encouraging families to spend time with their children in the classroom environment. Spaces encourage interactive learning so that teachers and children are together reading, acting out stories, creating artwork, counting, or conducting simple learning projects.

Inside Tulsa Educare schools, significant space is devoted to family-related activities, including one-on-one counseling and support groups for mothers, fathers and grandparents. There are rooms with computers to facilitate parents’ efforts in job hunting or in researching family needs; and there are rooms for parent training and education sessions. One of our schools houses a University of Oklahoma on-site health clinic that provides health care services for Tulsa Educare students and their families. Each TEI school also provides the children with breakfast, lunch and afternoon snacks that have been planned by certified nutritionists.

To summarize, Educare is a:

• Program – based on the best of early education practices that ensure the school readiness of children most at risk for academic failure.


• Place – of early learning that sends a message that we must invest in early childhood education because children are born learning.


• Partnership – comprised of philanthropists, education professionals and school officials dedicated to narrowing the achievement gap for at-risk children.