When my first child was about to enter preschool, we did not know what to do. We could not afford a private preschool but we also did not qualify for Head Start. We found out about a public preschool (Heritage Child Development Center) that sounded great so we called them up. They had a number of different "qualifications" listed and if you met any 2 of them, your child got in. The stipulations were like if the mother was a teenager when she gave birth, if the child had any diseases, like asthma, diabetes, etc, if you made under a certain amount of money. We qualified because I was just 2 months shy of 20 when I had him and he was diagnosed with asthma. It was a wonderful, center-based preschool and my son got a great head start in school. However, they lost their funding and had to close a few years ago. I don't know what parents do nowadays and my heart goes out to them.