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The Texas Legislature passed House Bill 3 in 2019<\/a>, which expanded access to full-day pre-K and established the Early Education Allotment<\/a> to support early childhood education learning goals. However, despite requiring districts to offer full-day pre-K, the state only provides funding for half-day pre-K.<\/p>\n In Plano ISD, the number of students qualifying for free pre-K has steadily increased over the past few years, indicating a growing need for early education services in the district.<\/p>\n \u201cThere can be barriers for families who need access to pre-K, and our district is willing to go above and beyond to remove those barriers,\u201d said Talle Gomez, PISD executive director of multilingual services. \u201cWe want to make sure everybody in our community knows our district is ready to respond and try to find a place that meets the needs of their child and help them be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n Funding and enrollment challenges<\/strong><\/p>\n Most pre-K students in PISD meet the state’s qualifying criteria for free pre-K<\/a>, which includes low socioeconomic status and emergent bilingualism, among other criteria. The remainder of the students in the early childhood education program are tuition-based students.<\/p>\n Qualifying criteria often prevent students across the state from enrolling in free pre-K programming. Income eligibility requires families to be within 185% of the federal poverty line. For example, a family of four would have to have an income of $58,000 or less to qualify for free pre-K programming. Currently, the median family income in Texas sits at $86,000<\/a>, leaving many students without the ability to enroll. The National Institute for Early Education Research<\/a> reports that Texas public pre-K programs only enroll 52% of 4-year-old children in the state.<\/p>\n Given the difficulty many families face qualifying for pre-K in Texas, funding for those enrolled in pre-K remains stagnant. According to the National Institute for Early Education Research, state spending per pre-K student is $4,235, which is $1,500 less than what Texas spent in 2002 and $3,000 below the national average.<\/p>\n Although districts are able to use the Early Education Allotment to cover the remaining cost of full-day pre-K, it also means diverting funding from K-3 programs\u2014an approach that has become a delicate balance. One of the changes PISD hopes to see come out of the next legislative session is dedicated full-day funding that would allow for more teachers to be hired to be able to maintain smaller class sizes.<\/p>\n \u201cFunding is absolutely a challenge,\u201d said Lisa Wilson, PISD deputy superintendent for teaching, learning and life readiness. \u201cIt’s not going to stop us from doing what’s right for kids, but it’s certainly a challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n Although districts are able to use the Early Education Allotment to cover the remaining cost of full-day pre-K, it also means diverting funding from K-3 programs\u2014an approach that has become a delicate balance. One of the changes PISD hopes to see come out of the next legislative session is dedicated full-day funding that is matched for inflation. The implementation of full-day funding would allow the district to better control its class sizes and hire more teachers to staff additional classrooms with smaller classroom sizes.<\/p>\n \u201cIn Plano, we have always kept our class ratios lower than required,\u201d said Ashley Davis, director of elementary academics for PISD. \u201cBut pre-K class sizes have slowly grown, and although we never go over the required ratio, the classes are larger than we would like them to be. If we have full-day funding, we could go back to prioritizing smaller class sizes for our pre-K program.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the COVID-19 pandemic causing some disruptions for students in terms of emotional and academic success, the district has managed to return pre-K classes to the education levels they had before the pandemic. However, the half-day funding structure is exacerbating other classroom challenges that spiked during the pandemic, particularly teacher retention. PISD\u2014and many other school districts across Texas\u2014continues to struggle with retaining full-time pre-K teachers with only half-day funding.<\/p>\n However, the pandemic has affected the district\u2019s ability to keep pre-K classes staffed based on the number of students and funding it receives. The full-day pre-K mandate has resulted in challenges related to retaining full-time pre-K teachers with only half-day funding.<\/p>\n \u201cEnsuring our youngest Texans have access to quality early learning opportunities is vital to the future of our state,\u201d said Angie Chen Button, Vice Chair of the Texas House Early Childhood Caucus and state representative for District 112. \u201cIf our students are set on a path to success with the skills needed to meet the demands of tomorrow\u2019s employers, the Texas economy will remain strong.\u201d<\/p>\n Improving student outcomes<\/strong><\/p>\n Enrolling students in pre-K has immense cognitive and social-emotional benefits. Early exposure to school routines and learning experiences improves academic readiness and strengthens the transition into elementary school education.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you enroll your student in a pre-K program, he or she is going to be ready to take on the rest of school,\u201d said Bob Popinski, senior director of policy at Raise Your Hand Texas. \u201cYou’re less likely to drop out, less likely to need additional help, more likely to graduate high school, and more likely to persist in a two-year or four-year university degree. All of those are important aspects of a child\u2019s ongoing success in school. Pre-K is one of the best answers to make sure our kids are off on the right foot.\u201d<\/p>\n Part of ensuring student success in PISD means giving their youngest learners the strongest head start possible. The support 3- and 4-year-olds receive in pre-K helps identify and address specific developmental needs that set kids on the right path sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know the earlier you can intervene to close a learning gap and a performance gap, the better it is for the student,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cWhile there are a lot of learned social skills taking place, there is also a great focus on learning early foundational skills. We assess our pre-K students and then monitor their growth and progress to ensure they’re getting the foundational skills they need to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to serving more students, additional funds could also help Texas reach quality pre-K benchmarks associated with improved student outcomes. Currently, Texas only meets four of the 10 NIEER quality standards<\/a> for preschool, including early learning standards; teacher degree requirements; specialized training for early learning; and health screening and referrals for children.<\/p>\n Among other missed benchmarks, Texas does not require a one-to-11 teacher-student ratio, a class size limit of 20 students, degree-holding assistant teachers, or a quality improvement system.<\/p>\n How to get involved<\/strong><\/p>\n To stay informed about important legislative issues in Texas, sign up for Raise Your Hand Texas\u2019 Across the Lawn Newsletter<\/a>. You can also sign up here<\/a> to advocate for Texas public schools during the upcoming legislative session. For more information about Raise Your Hand Texas, visit www.raiseyourhandtexas.org.<\/a><\/p>\n The above story was produced by Senior Multi Platform Journalist Sierra Rozen with Community Impact’s Storytelling team with information solely provided by the local business as part of its “sponsored content” purchase through our advertising team.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As the 89th Texas Legislature is set to convene in January, funding for full-day pre-K is top of mind for school districts across the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and public education…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n