The Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation is making preparations for enrollment to begin in November for the state’s new Prek pilot program, offered by the Family and Social Services Administration. The EVSC was one of five counties that were selected in June to pilot the new initiative set to begin in January 2015.
The EVSC will offer programming for four year olds and will join other public and private schools, as well as community based programs, licensed centers, registered ministries and licensed programs in homes in the area in this pilot which will bring up to $10 million statewide including state and matching funds from Vanderburgh County. All providers must meet Paths to QUALITY Level 3 or Level 4 standards or other national accreditation standards as identified by the Family and Social Services Administrations. Through the pilot, families will enroll their children through 4C of Southern Indiana, Inc., 600 SE 6th Street, and select one of the pilot sites in which to attend. In the EVSC, three new classrooms are planned, with an additional four to six by Fall 2015.
“Early childhood education lays the groundwork for success later in school by successfully preparing students to enter kindergarten on time and ready to learn,†said EVSC Director of Early Childhood Education Terry Green. “The EVSC is excited to have several locations to pilot this new program. We have offered high-quality PreK programming for several years now and are seeing the benefits.†Green said EVSC focuses on active learning – making learning fun for students, allowing them to explore and providing them new experiences with which to build knowledge.
Currently, the EVSC has fee and non-fee based PreK classrooms at Culver Family Learning Center, Daniel Wertz Elementary, Dexter Elementary, Scott Elementary, and Cedar Hall Community School,
FSSA is working to implement the major design phases of the program, which include devising plans for the longitudinal study for students, monitoring the design and implementation of a new kindergarten readiness assessment and the program accountability system, establishing guidelines and activation of fundraising activities, and making modifications to interagency IT and staffing infrastructure to support the pilot program.
