Partnership for Children gets 24 more pre-K slots
By Steve Herring
Published in News on August 29, 2017 10:19 PM
The Partnership for Children of Wayne County will receive $84,351 in supplemental state funding for 24 additional slots in the NC Pre-K Program it manages for the county.
The program is designed to provide at-risk 4-year-olds an opportunity for quality preschool education, said Charles Ivey, executive director for the nonprofit Partnership for Children of Wayne County.
NC Pre-K is free for the eligible 4-year-olds it serves, primarily those whose family income does not exceed 75 percent of the state's median income of $60,074.
The Partnership for Children of Wayne County had applied for funding for 52 additional slots, but was approved for 24.
Statewide more than 1,800 additional 4-year-olds will attend the NC Pre-K program this fall thanks to efforts by Gov. Roy Cooper to expand the state's pre-kindergarten education program.
In his budget, Cooper sought to end a waiting list for pre-K by funding slots for 4,668 more at-risk 4-year-olds, bringing the state total to more than 28,000 children.
The governor's budget requested $32.4 million over two years to fund the expansion. Instead, legislators appropriated $27.3 million over two years which will serve about 3,500 new children.
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services includes the Division of Child Development and Early Education, which administers the NC Pre-K Program.
Children must be 4 by Aug. 31 to be eligible for the program.
"The requirement is largely income based," Ivey said. "But you can also be at risk if you have English as a second language, if you have a developmental delay -- and that could be physical or mental cognitive delay -- or if you are military. Military is considered at risk because of the movement.
"I am a career educator, and quality pre-school experiences are priceless. NC Pre-K does exactly that."
It provides, particularly for at-risk kids, the start which they need in order to be competitive or to be at level with others their age, Ivey said.
It gives them the smart start that they need, he said.
Independent evaluations consistently show that children who participate in NC Pre-K have higher math and reading standardized test scores, better language and social skills, are less likely to need special education, and have lower rates of retention in third, fourth and fifth grades than they would otherwise experience.
Not everyone is eligible, but a large number of 4-year-olds in Wayne County are, Ivey said.
"We do have the need here in Wayne County," he said. "In any given year, we could probably use another hundred slots."
The actual number of additional slots will be based on space availability, reimbursement rate and the amount of time it will take a school or private day care center to get up and running.
There are currently 540 slots for Wayne County 4-year-olds, but the county has a waiting list of approximately 75. In prior years, there have been between 100 and 150 on the waiting list.
One of the possible reason for the smaller list is that the word was out already that the county did not have any more slots, so people did not apply, he said.
"But I think when the word gets out that we are opening up at least one additional classroom, there may be additional interest out there," he said.
The organization's pre-K committee will meet Sept. 7 to formalize the process for the new slots.
It also will determine how the new slots are distributed.
Once that is done, applications for those slots will be taken.
Classrooms cannot have more than 18 students.
There are 30 classes scattered across 18 sites in the county.
Currently there are 12 such classrooms in Wayne County Public Schools facilities, 14 in private day care providers and four in WAGES Head Start centers.
The classroom has to be pre-licensed by the state in order to qualify for the pre-K program, Ivey said.
"We do not put a pre-K program at any facility that is not four- or five-star rated," Ivey said. "Everyone of those classrooms is a quality classroom regardless if it is in a public school or private child care.
"They all have to meet the same guidelines, both environmentally and instructionally. The qualifications for the teachers are the same. So regardless of the site, you have a quality pre-K program."
Applications can be may online at pfcw.org.
For more information, call Valerie Wallace, Partnership for Children of Wayne County assistant executive director, or Shelly Willis, NC Pre-K coordinator, at 919-735-3371.