by Jean Tarbett, The Herald
Dispatch, April 3, 2003
In less than 10 years, preschool will be free for 4-year-olds throughout
the state of West Virginia.
Last year, the state Legislature passed S.B. 247, which guarantees access
to quality preschool for all 4-year-olds by 2012-13, and Tuesday, the
Cabell County Board of Education got a briefing on the law and an update
on the county’s plan for making it happen.
Four-year-olds will not be required to attend, but they will have the
opportunity, said Gerry Sawrey, director of special education for the
system.
The law was a result of a couple things, Sawrey said. One is the research
showing the importance of early brain development. For years, parents and
educators knew the importance of early years to brain development, but now
there is finally a growing amount of research proving it, she said.
It’s like wiring a house or building, Sawrey said. It’s much easier to
wire a new house than an old one.
She also pointed to a longitudinal study by the High/Scope Educational
Research Foundation, which indicates that every $1 spent on quality early
care saves $7 to society as the children grow into adults.
Children with quality early care are more likely to get more education,
stay out of jail and have a greater commitment to marriage, the study
indicated.
"It’s probably how people felt when they first started kindergarten," said
Suzi Brodof of River Valley Child Development Services, who sits on a
local steering committee and a statewide committee focused on the issue.
"So many children come to school not ready for all the things that schools
expect them to do."
With more parents working, it’s harder for them to find the time to
prepare kids for the steep expectations for kindergartners, she said.
The preschool will not be like a younger version of kindergarten, with
kids sitting at desks all day with worksheets and flashcards, Brodof said.
Children will be developing their brains through play and will be learning
how to take directions, listen and get along with other children.
Another reason for the new law was a need of school systems to boost their
enrollment numbers to get more state funding, Sawrey said. School systems
would get extra state dollars for each student enrolled in the preschool,
whether enrolled in a county school or at a child-care center contracting
with the school system, she said.
For parents who have 4-year-olds in child care all day, the offering means
parents will not have to pay for the "preschool" segment of the day that
their child is in day care. That cost will be covered with state funds the
school system receives to contract those services with the centers.
Local early childhood centers, Head Starts and preschools will be key to
the county’s plan for offering free preschool to 4-year-olds, and the law
requires that no less than 50 percent of the classrooms must be provided
through contractual agreements with community programs, Sawrey said.
For the past year, Cabell administrators have been meeting with a steering
committee made up of child-care providers throughout Cabell County. The
committee sent out a survey to 38 facilities. Twenty indicated they would
be willing to participate, but of the 979 total slots for 4-year-olds in
all the programs in the county, there are only 10 facilities and 384 slots
for 4-year-olds that currently meet the criteria to participate in the
West Virginia pre-kindergarten program, Sawrey said.
Now the system must develop an action plan to make sure the centers that
want to participate meet the state criteria, which covers teacher
certification, curriculum, health and safety and other factors. The system
must submit a plan to the state in June. The program can gradually be
implemented over the next 10 years, Sawrey said.
