Our goal for this article is to showcase a range of preschool initiatives, though this is by no means a comprehensive list of all locally operated, publicly funded programs. The initiatives highlighted are as varied as the localities themselves, but all were motivated by common concerns — the importance of early learning for school success and love of learning, positive child and family development, and lifelong health combined with concerns about inequality of access to preschools and the high cost of good preschool programs. As this article illustrates the range of choices that local leaders might make in their program design for each of these components, we describe key considerations as well as give examples of decisions that have been made in different cities. (author abstract)