This story originally appeared in the Aug. 23, 2024 edition of the LINK Reader.
Will preschool give your child an advantage when entering kindergarten and beyond? Anecdotally, many say yes, but recent studies show mixed results.
Parents who have had children in preschool, as well as early education experts, agree early learning can give kids an advantage when it comes to literacy and math skills. More important, early exposure to a school-like setting, as well as experiences interacting with adults and other children does appear to help young children prepare to enter kindergarten.
Previous studies point to early childhood education as beneficial both academically and socially. Yet a study published in May in Science magazine was less conclusive. The study, done at the University of California Irvine School of Education, looked at preschool program outcomes in Boston and Tennessee. Researchers found immediate benefits were apparent, but the long-term effects of preschool were varied. More research is needed to determine other factors involved, they said.
Parents we spoke with whose children attended preschool, public or private, said they were pleased with the outcome.
Valuable to parents
Alex Berling of Independence sent her son, Felix, to preschool at Easterseals Redwood school in Fort Mitchell.
“We were both working at the time, my husband and I,” Berling said. “But even after, when I became more of a stay-at-home mom, we kept Felix in preschool, mostly because he’s an only child. Because of that social interaction, which I think is crucial for kids to learn – how to share, how to take turns, how to communicate with peers, and to listen – that’s been super helpful, and I would definitely recommend, if people can, to do preschool.
“My son was born premature and had a medical issue for a time,” she said. “He’s healthy now, but that’s why we chose Redwood initially, because they do have home nursing staff as well as speech therapy and other things. But certainly kids that are more typical can go to Redwood as well…. They did a very good job academic-wise in terms of preparing Felix for kindergarten…. He was definitely on track with his peers,” she said.
Felix likes and is good at math and numbers, she added, but the school helped him learn his letters and helped him focus on reading, writing and grammar, things he would work on again in kindergarten. She also said he continued to do well in kindergarten, gaining in his reading scores through the year.
Kat Disney has two children, both of whom went to preschool. She lives in Grant County and said her area was almost a preschool desert. She decided to bring her children to a preschool near her job in Fort Thomas. She found a unique opportunity with Natural Start, a private preschool that emphasizes nature-focused and outdoor learning opportunities.
“My 6-year-old is starting first grade. She went for one school year. My 3-year-old just went last school year…. We live on 50 acres, so my kids are very much outside kids. I was looking for something, especially for my daughter who had been in home child care, that would usher her from the wild and crazy into a daily routine. Natural Start was the perfect gateway, the perfect transition,” Disney said.
Disney’s daughter now attends public elementary school, and she credits that year in preschool with preparing her daughter for kindergarten and beyond. “It helped one thousand percent, not only on the academic side of it, but in the procedures and the social aspect.”
For her son, who is not a “sit down and practice” type of learner, the outside-based program was especially helpful. “He’ll come home and tell me things they’ve learned that he doesn’t even know that they’re learning because it’s such fun,” she said.
Preschool assistance
Both Berling and Disney were able to afford private preschool, but the cost can be daunting for many families. Two programs that would have helped lessen the financial burden on families did not make it through the last legislative session.
Gov. Andy Beshear put state-funded pre-K for all 4-year-olds (also known as universal pre-K) in his 2024 budget proposal, but lawmakers didn’t approve it. Another bill to provide full-day kindergarten, sponsored by state Rep. Timmy Truett (R-McKee), vice chair of the House Education Committee, never made it to committee.
Yet there is some relief available to families that qualify. Bill Buchanan is the early learning adviser in the Kentucky Office of Special Education. He noted two programs that help families afford early childhood education.
“The state-funded preschool program is offered by every school district in the state to 3- and 4-year-olds with disabilities and to 4-year-olds based on income, up to 160% of the federal poverty level. And so, for a family of three, that would be an income of $41,312,” he said.
State programs blend with or complement other services, such as area child care providers and the federal Head Start program, depending on how the school district wants to operate them, he added.
The preschool programs have been around since 1990 and are funded through an allocation from the legislature through what is known as a flexible focus fund. Money goes directly from the department to the school districts.
“Low income families have access to free preschool services,” Buchanan said, “and those are high quality, wonderful environments that our school districts provide to preschool students. They receive developmentally appropriate teaching and learning experiences aligned to Kentucky’s early childhood standards. They receive instruction and support from a teacher certified both in early childhood education and special education.
“And the classrooms are small. There’s one teacher for every 10 students, a maximum class size of 20 students. So, it’s a really high quality and vibrant learning environment for our kids.”
Finding funding
Dayton Independent Schools offers preschool to all the city’s residents. The district pulls funding together from the state for those students who qualify, and it partners with a Head Start program on site. Much of the funding still comes from the district, though, and that is a challenge.
“We partner with Head Start,” said Nicole Ponting, the district’s director of special education and early childhood learning. “So we have two preschool classrooms that operate on a half-day program four days a week, and then we have a Head Start program that operates a full-day program in our building.”
“A lot of us in the river cities used to get the Preschool Partnership Grant, and none of us got it this year,” Ponting said. “Since I’ve been here it’s really helped with funding.… It was through the Kentucky Department of Education, and it was based on the needs of the districts.”
The Kentucky Preschool Quality Partnership Grant is designed to provide support for full-day, year-round, high-quality early childhood services to 3- and 4-year-old children. High quality is defined as programs that earn three stars in the state’s Kentucky All Stars rating system. The grant defines a full day as at least six hours, four or five days per week.
A local school district serves as the grant applicant, but it is also required to have at least one licensed or certified child care provider, including Head Start, as a co-applicant.
For 2024 the funds available per district were doubled, but the timeframe was reduced. Districts could receive up to $300,000 but over 18 months instead of three years. The grant was also limited to 15 school districts across the state. Competition for the funds was and remains strong.
“This was a competitive application process,” said GlyptusAnn Grider Jones, academic program manager for the Kentucky Department of Education. “Awards are contingent on available funding and districts/schools meeting programmatic and budgetary requirements.”
Pulling resources together
Dayton Independent Schools offers a host of services and partners with a variety of entities to provide as much support as possible to their families, Ponting said.
“We offer physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy. We have mental health therapists that work with our students now. The library comes in monthly. We’ve also been able to do really good family engagement field trips with our students. We require our parents to go on field trips with them. And we do a book-of-the-week program, which has won a state award. Every week our kids get a book.”
The district offers the Science of Reading curriculum starting at the preschool level. The program focuses on reading proficiency.
“That’s been really beneficial to get them started. I think that’s where we’re going to see the benefits in the next couple years with our kindergarten readiness as well. We’ve also implemented some Spanish speaking programs. It’s an internet-based program that the students really enjoy,” she said.
The district serves about 80 children through Head Start and the two preschool programs. Many of the families do qualify for financial assistance. Staff members do home visits regularly and hold five conference days with parents each year.
Ponting said she wishes the state did better tracking of students’ progress. In a recent trip to London, England, she said she met a preschool educator who explained that they check in with new parents from birth to track childrens’ progress every six months before they come to school. The information helps identify needs and provide wrap-around services.
Preschool in river cities
Ponting’s idea, as well as suggestions from other educators across the region, may get a serious hearing this summer. EducateNKY, a nonprofit initiative of the OneNKY Alliance, was formed last year to take a deep look at education in our region with an eye toward “system alignment.”
Tom Haggard, EducateNKY’s vice president, said, “We’re trying to focus our efforts on systems alignment and how do we figure out or break down bureaucratic or policy barriers that are preventing good work and research-based work from happening at scale.”
“At scale” involves clearing the way to expand successful programs to serve more students across the region.
The organization hired a consultant to assess the state of education in our region. The consultant came up with five strategic priority areas, and early learning is one of them.
In early childhood education and kindergarten readiness, the researchers found the region, especially the river cities, has not moved the needle much in over 10 years. This led them to focus their efforts on Ludlow, Covington, Newport, Bellevue, Dayton and Southgate.
“In that universe of about 7,000 public school students, how can we create better systems so that students living in families in those communities can have access to the same opportunities that may exist in more affluent parts of Northern Kentucky?” Haggard asked.
In the spring, EducateNKY formed working groups of early childhood educators, providers, business leaders and community members to investigate the topic and to provide input and ideas on what is working, what is not working and how to improve outcomes.
EducateNKY plans to release a full report outlining the advisory groups’ suggestions and strategies for addressing the issues this fall. One recommendation already being discussed, however, is adding people who can serve as coordinators and facilitators, helping parents navigate the system and provide more seamless access to information and resources.
Starting preschool journey
Buchanan, the state special education adviser, said Kentucky provides access to a number of resources to help parents navigate early childhood education. The state publishes a set of early childhood standards along with a series of “family guides” designed to provide ideas and activities to help children meet those standards. Both are offered on the Governor’s Office of Early Childhood website, kyecac.ky.gov.
State education leaders also worked with KET, the state’s public television network, to develop Let’s Learn Kentucky, a program that helps parents and caregivers prepare children to be kindergarten ready.