Growing pains for pre-K law

Playing, laughing and learning.

Charley is sitting at the snack table working on his manners by asking his friends to pass the cheese and crackers, and working on his motor skills by using tongs to pick up the snacks. After excusing himself from the table and cleaning up after himself, Charley breaks out the blocks. His task: make a tower of 15 blocks, helping him learn to count.

“He’s a mama’s boy,” Charley’s mom, Ember Power of Waterbury, said.

Power found Kelley Hackett’s registered home preschool, with its play-based learning approach, a perfect fit for her son. The 10 hours he spends there a week has helped him socially and emotionally develop outside the home, while giving her time to breathe as a stay-at-home mom and student.

With only her husband’s income supporting the family, it was a tough choice to send Charley to school so early. But it was made easier thanks to funds provided by Act 166, the 2014 universal pre-kindergarten law that pays for 10 hours of pre-K for all 3- to 5-year-olds not in kindergarten.

“As a one-income family, we can’t afford preschool. These 10 hours help him to get into a school-like setting, getting him ready for kindergarten, and allow us to be OK financially,” Power said.

Vermont’s universal pre-K law might help more parents get their children into a school setting in their very early years, but in the very early stages of the new law, there are some growing pains.

The law allows children to be placed into home pre-kindergartens like Hackett’s, private preschools like the Children’s Early Learning Space in Duxbury or Hunger Mountain Child Center in Waterbury. There’s also the public school option at Thatcher Brook Primary.

“Without question, in a rural state, a mixed delivery system is important,” Robyn Freedner-Maguire, campaign director for Let’s Grow Kids, said. “It is important in gaining access and maintaining continuity. From ages 0 to 5, continuity of care is vital for social and emotional health.”

Each preschool is verified, they have to follow the same procedure and curriculum as the public schools, and they have to maintain the high quality education. Once verified, preschools contract with the supervisory unions for the 10 hours per kid per week, and cut that from parents’ bills.

However, some feel the qualifications are too harsh on the private preschools, and if the private schools don’t meet one of the requirements, then the contract with the supervisory union is placed on hold.

Finding the teachers

Having a universal preschool program in place seems good enough, right?

Instead, it’s creating strain on the system. The Children’s Early Learning Space isn’t receiving Act 166 funds at the moment, and won’t until they can find a certified teacher. And it’s not for a lack of trying, director Tina Grant said. She has been advertising on education job websites, posting classifieds and even reached out to other schools to consider swapping teachers during the week, so they can have a certified teacher for 10 hours.

The already small pool of licensed teachers grew smaller when programs were expanded and the need for licensed teachers grew.

“Once Act 166 went into play, public schools started opening up more classrooms. Pre-K teachers who are licensed went to the public schools, and so there are not enough teachers for the amount of programs,” Grant said.

If it were a public school having this problem, the public school could get a 30-day waiver, where the substitute could continue teaching. After those 30 days when all options were exhausted, the teacher would be granted an emergency license under the supervision of the superintendent until June.

“It prevents us from partnering when we don’t have a licensed teacher,” Grant said.

The Children’s Early Learning Center has a certified K-6 teacher with experience in early education, but she currently doesn’t have the specific pre-K certifications. So, she doesn’t count and there is no kind of waiver for private programs associated with the state to have her be the certified teacher for the time being as they continue the search.

That means parents are paying full tuition, and they won’t get the 10 hours paid by the state until the center can find a certified teacher.

“It doesn’t feel like we are being supported,” Grant said. “It’s feeling like a big challenge to jump through the hoops that are required in order to partner.”

Jumping through the hoops

Prekindergarten teacher Heather Izor, who operates Learning Ladders in Duxbury, decided to stop accepting state funds this year. Those hoops were just too much for her to jump through, and she decided to stop partnering with the school district.

Act 166 “was great when it first started. It was collaborating in every sense of the world,” Izor said. She felt like she was part of the team. Then, Thatcher Brook Primary principal Don Schneider visited the private preschools, and preschool teachers were invited to the table to discuss their problems. And she was happy to be able to give back the 10 hours of money to the parents.

“In the last few years the demands and requirements have gotten a lot stiffer, and more,” Izor said.

Last year, two weeks before public preschools were told teachers needed to be fingerprinted, the paperwork had to go to so many different offices, it wasn’t done in time for school. Then preschools didn’t get the money from the school district at the start of the year because they did not meet the requirements right away.

The hoops to jump through for public funding combining with more spaces at public schools, are causing issues for many of the private preschools.

“You hear about it all over in Waitsfield, in Burlington, small centers are closing because they don’t have the enrollment, and it is because of the universal [law],” Izor said.

Hunger Mountain Children’s Center, which operates in multiple school districts, has been through the bumpy transition. Executive Director Amanda Olney sees Act 166 working to help her staff provide more care to children. The Waterbury location moved into an expanded new building in January, opening up 20 more spots for children.

The paperwork was the hardest hurdle to clear, but this year Winooski Valley Superintendents Association — which oversees Harwood Unified Union schools — was able to hire a regional Act 166 coordinator, Sandra Cameron.

“We are each making it up as we go along,” Cameron said. So, instead of having each of the 12 school districts in the Winooski Valley manage its own process, she is working to streamline it. All 12 school districts have the same paperwork, which helps Hunger Mountain, as it operates in multiple districts.

At a smaller level, Hackett, who owns the preschool where Charley was learning manners and ABCs, has continued jumping through the hoops, finding this year easier than last.

“It constantly feels like we are backpedaling. So paperwork will come out, but it was supposed to come out three months before, and this stuff needed to be done last week,” Hackett said. “There are a lot of providers in the area that are not wanting to partner that are certainly qualified.”

Thatcher Brook opens seats

Last Thursday Thatcher Brook Primary sent out a letter to 4-year-olds’ parents, saying they were opening up 20 to 28 prekindergarten spots starting in November. The additional seats in classrooms allow them to serve all students eligible under Act 166.

“Having the ability to allow all Waterbury/Duxbury parents of 4-year-olds the option to attend the school based program at TBPS makes our preschool program much more equitable,” principal Denise Goodnow wrote in an email to parents. “Until now, families all had the same ‘chance’ at getting in through the lottery. Going forward, it doesn’t have to be a guessing game but rather something our families can count on, much like they can in the Valley schools and elsewhere in Vermont.”

Charley’s mom said he’ll likely stay at Hackett’s preschool, where he can continue to play with blocks and learn his manners.

“With the small class size, he is able to get the attention he needs now,” Power said. “He will be ready for kindergarten at Thatcher Brook next year.”