School Readiness - Bridge to School
School Readiness, also known as Bridge to School in our district, is a program to help children and families prepare for kindergarten.
Population Served
School Readiness provides resource information and services to children from 3 ½ to 5 years old.
Children who cannot afford preschool, are learning to speak English, have developmental concerns, or are experiencing individual or family stresses receive priority for preschool services offered through School Readiness during the year before kindergarten.
Challenges
State funding was cut by 13% in 2004-05.
There is a significantly greater need for affordable preschool services than programs available. Each year there is a waiting list of children who will not have a preschool experience before attending kindergarten.
The amount of revenue collected through fees is going down each year. More families are struggling to make ends meet and are less able to pay tuition for their children to attend the program.
Most of the children waiting to attend preschool through School Readiness need transportation to get to class. Transportation is a huge program expense and only about ½ of children are transported by bus.
Preschool classes are either 2 or 3 half days per week. An optimal level of programming for some children in the program, especially children learning English, would be 4 or 5 half days per week.
Program Funding
Revenue for the program comes from state aid, fees and grants.
Program Fees
Families pay for children to attend the preschool and summer programs based on their income. A large percent of families in the program are low income and pay nothing for the program.
