Agenda - 01-28-2010 - 2 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

4 children coming to school.ready for success using the physical and administrative infrastructure available in the child care community. Orange County has already taken the lead.in providing Early Head Start and More at Four services in child care classrooms that meet the higher standards. It is time for the next step. The North Carolina Pre-kindergarten. Program Standards have recently been developed and, when instituted, will offer child care programs the opportunity to demonstrate that their four-year-old classrooms meet the highest educational standards. These standards mirror those found in More at Four classrooms with certified teachers, approved curriculum, child assessments and high quality classroom environments. They also mirror the standards found in the research evidence on what components produce positive educational and social outcomes for children. North Carolina's rated license system for child care has set 5 stars as a benchmark for quality. However, standards for the five stars are not good enough.,because the floor in North Carolina has historically been so low. In fact a number of states have North Carolina's five-star education and staff/child ratio standards as their floor not their zenith. In addition, fewer and fewer programs in Orange County meet NAEYC accreditation standards, which are the nation's most rigorous program standards. Yet the evidence is clear. Investing in high quality early childhood education has a significant return in immediate savings in costs for remedial and special education and in long term savings resulting from better educational and social outcomes. This proposal seeks to raise the quality of preschool education for all of Orange County's four year old children and to increase their access to this education.. With the increasing number of children who live in our community with English as their second language, the need for a high quality pre-kindergarten experience is even more critical. Early education is a public good equal to that of K-12 education and needs an equivalent investment of county funds to support its improvement and expansion. And with this investment Orange County is again taking a leadership role in education in the state and nation. Project Goal: The goal of the Orange County Universal Pre-kindergarten Program(OC-UPP) is to ensure that 70% (950)of all four year olds are enrolled in a preschool program in.the county meeting the NC Pre-kindergarten Program Standards by June 30, 2013. Project Design and Implementation: OC-UPP will be phased in over a five year period,beginning in August 2008. Participation is voluntary. Classrooms who meet the North Carolina Pre-kindergarten Program Standards would be eligible to have the fees for the school-day, school-year pre-kindergarten program partially or fully paid by OC-UPP program funds. Only children who are scheduled to enter kindergarten in the following year and who live in Orange County would be eligible to participate. Eligible classrooms would receive $8,000 per child for the school year. Families who need before and after pre-k child care and summer care would be responsible for either paying for this service or seeking scholarship assistance through DSS or. CCSA. Families making less than $30, 850 (<50% county median family income)would pay nothing for the program.. Families making between.$30,850 and $46,275 (between 50% and 75%of county median income) would pay $2000 for the school year,and families making at or over$46,275 (35% of county median income) would pay $4000 for the school year. The balance of the funding for each child would be paid by OC-UPP. Currently, 117 four year olds are enrolled in More at Four classrooms in Head.Start sites, where federal Head Start funds match More at Four funds. No fees are charged to parents in these sites