When I was a kid, preschool was not offered thru the school so you had to pay if you wanted your kid to attend somewhere. Our school offers it, 4 days a week, 1/2 days and it's free. Also our kindergarten is full days where when I went it was 1/2 days. I wonder if all public schools have switched to full day K.I wonder how many are left where it's voluntary. They switched it here about 20, 25 years ago. It's required. It was not free when it was voluntary, as in, you couldn't get it in the public schools. You had to pay for it at a private facility, usually a church or a day care facility.
Oddly, at my kids school, 6-8th is middle school, but only 7 & 8th can play middle school sports. Everything below 7th is a youth sports thing that may use the schools name, but isn't paid for by the school. Like football, there is a youth football program, which has a 3/4th team and 5/6th team. We are called the Bulldogs, get to play and practice on the high school field, and wear the school colors. But it's all paid for by parents and fundraising and the coaches are all dads. Same with wrestling, except the school doesn't have a wrestling team until high school.