Board of Regents Proposes Policy Requiring 5-Year-Olds To Go to School

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The New York Sun

Legally, school doesn’t start until the first grade, but a new policy proposed by the state Board of Regents would require all 5-year-olds in New York State to attend kindergarten.


The plan would also make free schooling available to all children starting at 3 years of age.


The current law does not require school districts to offer kindergarten. But the new proposal would roll back the age requirement by one year, mandating that all 5-years-olds attend school. Students would also have to enroll in a full-day kindergarten classroom, eliminating the half-day option.


The push is part of a larger policy initiative that would revamp early-childhood education across the state. Children are currently required to attend school between the ages of 6 and 16.


While most education advocates and teachers unions are cheering the plan, known as Early Education for Student Achievement in a Global Community, some opponents say it would put an unfair burden on rural and low-income districts that would not be able to afford the extra cost.


“We don’t think it would be fair to mandate that,” a spokesman for the New York State School Boards Association, David Ernst, said. “For the school districts that have the facilities, most have already voluntarily gone to full-day.”


Of the state’s more than 675 school districts, 46 offer only half-day kindergarten classes. Most of those districts are outside urban areas, including some districts in suburban Albany. Some families, often those with a parent at home, opt to send their children to half-day programs. About 200,000 students in New York State attend kindergarten, with about 21,000 enrolled in half-day programs.


“It’s really a case of policy catching up with practice,” Cynthia Gallagher, of the state Office of Early Education and Reading Initiatives, said. The Regents have not adopted an early-childhood policy in more than a decade, although most students now attend some form of schooling by age 5.


Across the country, children are now enrolling in school earlier and, in 2003, 61.5% of 5-year-olds were enrolled in either a public or private full day program, up from 12.3% in 1965, according to U.S. Department of Education statistics.


Researchers are finding that early education is an important component of later success in school.


“Full-day kindergarten will go a long way to eliminating the achievement gap,” a spokesman for New York State United Teachers union, Dennis Tompkins, said. “It’s beneficial to students, teachers, and families.”


In New York City, only full-day kindergarten is offered.


In 1983, then schools chancellor Anthony Alvarado made full-day kindergarten available to all students in New York City just months after coming into office. Last year, 62,976 public school students attended a public kindergarten class in the city compared to 72,872 students in first grade.


The Regent’s policy would also create “universal pre-kindergarten” for students in New York State, a program that would make free schooling available to all 3- and 4-year-olds.


Teachers unions have backed the plan, and the United Federation of Teachers’ president, Randi Weingarten, often plugs the importance of pre-kindergarten.


Jay Greene, a senior fellow for the conservative think tank Manhattan Institute, said that introducing more public pre-kindergarten seats could drive private programs out of business. “That wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing if we had reason to believe that the free pre-K would be as good as the pre-K they’re driving out,” Mr. Greene said. “But people have their suspicions that the publicly funded pre-K would be worse.”


Currently, about 80% of 4-year-olds in New York receive care outside the home.


The state currently allocates $253 million for public pre-kindergarten programs, although millions more would be needed to create slots for all 3- and 4-year-olds. In 1998, the state Legislature passed a bill to make enough funding available to provide pre-kindergarten to all interested families by 2004. That funding was put on hold after September 11, 2001.


The Regents held about a dozen public hearings on the plan last month. If approved by the board in December, the Legislature and governor would still need to approve the full day kindergarten initiative and develop a funding plan.


The New York Sun

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