Dive Brief:
- The Mukilteo School District, north of Seattle, is responding to a state requirement to offer full-day kindergarten and its own growing enrollment by opening a new center that will serve 550 kindergartners, exclusively.
- The Fairmount Kindergarten Center will open for the 2017-18 school year with four pods of six classrooms and common spaces, as well as playgrounds designed for students across the full range of athletic and physical ability.
- Heated floors will be more comfortable for students who spend a lot of their time on the ground, the school schedule is being designed to limit transitions for students, and the building is fully tech-enabled — all in hopes of best preparing a high-poverty, high-mobility population made up of many English learners and other students who often aren’t prepared for school.
Dive Insight:
While some cities like New York focus on universal preschool, other districts are still working to get all students into full-day kindergarten programs. Expanding access to education for the nation’s youngest learners is made difficult by state laws that don’t require students to attend school until they are 6 or 7 years old.
Researchers have found that much of a child’s brain development occurs between birth and 3 years old, creating greater urgency for policy leaders to increase exposure to rich early literacy and math for children in that age group. Low-income families, especially, are already less likely to have their children in high-quality early care environments that get them ready for kindergarten. And once they show up behind, it’s incredibly difficult to catch up.