About
Hearts Leap Schools are a project of the International Child Resource Institute (ICRI), a non-profit organization. The schools use a child-centered, emergent curriculum in which experiences and activities come from children’s exploring, problem solving, and imaginative play. Teachers provide information, props, and opportunities that match moments when children are actively asking questions and exploring issues.
• Ages: 0–5 years old
• Price: Application fee of $50
Hearts Leap Schools were founded in 1990 as a warm, secure, nurturing, and stimulating preschool for local children and their families. Hearts Leap North opened in 2008, Hearts Leap Lakeview opened in 2015, and Hearts Leap Beginnings opened in 2018. The schools are dedicated to creating and nurturing a child-centered environment of support, success, and safety for each child and family in their community of lifelong learners. The program views each child as an individual with unique cognitive, social, emotional, and physical strengths, and supports these strengths by helping children experience success, solve problems, resolve conflicts, and learn limits in a caring and stimulating environment. The Heart Lens is an intention that every interaction comes from the heart with a desire to truly connect with individuals and help them develop a positive sense of self. Hearts Leap Schools describe themselves as a relationship-based program with strong connections between children, families, and the extended community, and they incorporate anti-bias education goals of diversity, equity, and inclusion. The schools offer inviting and engaging environments where children have safe spaces to take risks, explore new materials with all their senses, and engage in imaginative play. An online application is available for all Hearts Leap programs, there is a waiting list system for future openings, and the schools are currently accepting resumes from prospective teachers.
Hearts Leap Schools recognize that their programs sit on the territory of xučyun (Huichin), the ancestral and unceded land of the Chochenyo speaking Ohlone, the successors of the sovereign Verona Band of Alameda County. They acknowledge the importance of this land to the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe and other familial descendants of the Verona Band.
Last updated May 11, 2026.
• Ages: 0–5 years old
• Price: Application fee of $50
Hearts Leap Schools were founded in 1990 as a warm, secure, nurturing, and stimulating preschool for local children and their families. Hearts Leap North opened in 2008, Hearts Leap Lakeview opened in 2015, and Hearts Leap Beginnings opened in 2018. The schools are dedicated to creating and nurturing a child-centered environment of support, success, and safety for each child and family in their community of lifelong learners. The program views each child as an individual with unique cognitive, social, emotional, and physical strengths, and supports these strengths by helping children experience success, solve problems, resolve conflicts, and learn limits in a caring and stimulating environment. The Heart Lens is an intention that every interaction comes from the heart with a desire to truly connect with individuals and help them develop a positive sense of self. Hearts Leap Schools describe themselves as a relationship-based program with strong connections between children, families, and the extended community, and they incorporate anti-bias education goals of diversity, equity, and inclusion. The schools offer inviting and engaging environments where children have safe spaces to take risks, explore new materials with all their senses, and engage in imaginative play. An online application is available for all Hearts Leap programs, there is a waiting list system for future openings, and the schools are currently accepting resumes from prospective teachers.
Hearts Leap Schools recognize that their programs sit on the territory of xučyun (Huichin), the ancestral and unceded land of the Chochenyo speaking Ohlone, the successors of the sovereign Verona Band of Alameda County. They acknowledge the importance of this land to the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe and other familial descendants of the Verona Band.
Last updated May 11, 2026.
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