Orange County NC Website
16 <br /> 1 <br /> 2 Pre-K operates 180 school days from 8:00-2:30 and extended care is available (7:30-8 <br /> 3 and 2:30-5:30). Pre-K is funded through Head Start,North Carolina state funded Pre- K <br /> 4 Program/Smart Start(NC Pre-K) and local tuition dollars. <br /> 5 <br /> 6 Applications for Pre-K/Head Start programs are accepted on a year-round basis. Children who <br /> 7 are three or four years old by August 31 st are eligible to apply. Interested families must complete <br /> 8 an application and provide supporting documentation. <br /> 9 Applications are reviewed and screened and eligibility for Head Start, Smart <br /> 10 Start/NCPK, Exceptional Children's Program(EC), Subsidy or Tuition is determined based on <br /> 11 income and risk factors. Tuition and Subsidy placements are lottery-based. <br /> 12 Children who are not selected through the lottery process will be placed on a waiting list. Head <br /> 13 Start and Smart Start/NC Pre-K placements are need-based. If enrollment at all sites is full, <br /> 14 accepted applications will be placed on the waiting list. Once the selection process is completed, <br /> 15 families will be notified of their child's application status. In efforts to reach families in Chapel <br /> 16 Hill and Carrboro, flyers are created and distributed in 4 different languages: Karen, Burmese, <br /> 17 Spanish, and English. Outreach takes place through churches, shelters, apartment complexes, <br /> 18 mobile home parks, and supermarkets in efforts to reach diverse populations in the community. <br /> 19 <br /> 20 The district pre-kindergarten program currently operates on an annual budget of approximately <br /> 21 $4 million dollars for 267 students. Funding sources are: <br /> 22 • $1,300,000 from Head Start <br /> 23 • $700,000 from NC-PK <br /> 24 • $500,000 from Local Tuition Students <br /> 25 • $1,500,000 from Local Funds for EC Support <br /> 26 The district estimates that a Universal Pre-K program would cost approximately $15 million <br /> 27 dollars to serve approximately 750 students. This estimated cost does not include additional <br /> 28 capital funding that would be needed for additional classrooms to serve 500 more students in a <br /> 29 Universal Pre-K program. <br /> 30 <br /> 31 The 267 students in Pre-K are from the following funding sources: <br /> 32 • 116 PK Federal Head Start <br /> 33 • 20 Smart Start/NC Pre-K <br /> 34 • 131 PK Paid <br /> 35 o 30-paid fully by parents <br /> 36 o 60-paid through Exceptional Children's Program <br /> 37 o 40+paid through DSS childcare subsidies <br /> 38 <br /> 39 Of the 20 PK classrooms in the district, 14 classrooms are housed inside an elementary school <br /> 40 building and six classrooms are housed in a mobile unit on an elementary school campus. All <br /> 41 classrooms have 5-star(highest) quality ratings from the NC Division of Child Development. <br /> 42 There are currently 4 students on the Head Start waiting list and <br /> 43 71 students on the tuition list for PK. <br /> 44 <br /> 45 Kindergarten statistics: <br />