Free Preschool Las Vegas Nv – In the darkened room where the mayor cut a giant red ribbon and punch was passed out, three 2-year-olds curled up on their beds peered into their bedrooms, undisturbed by the stream of visitors.
The sleeping babies are among 120 children attending Strong Start Academy, a kindergarten for 5-year-olds. Housed in a recently renovated building – the former Nevada State Museum in the sprawling Lorenzi Park in downtown Las Vegas – the Academy is unique in that the city itself is its main partner.
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The Variety Early Childhood Education Center was looking for a new space to replace the 63-year-old building and place its attractions on the site of the former museum. However, according to board member Ron Bonillo, Variety’s renovation took too long; That’s when the city stepped in, contributing $4 million to renovate the building and bring the project to fruition.
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The center, which opened on Monday, can accommodate 184 children, compared with 120 in the old building. It expects to serve children of all incomes, including those who can pay full price and those who receive state subsidized child care. (Grants are hard to come by – limited government funding means only 2.3 percent of children in families below 200 percent of poverty receive them.)
The Pre-K portion of the center that focuses on 4-year-olds from low-income families is free, but prices for other programs offered vary depending on parents’ income levels and available scholarships to cover the costs.
With few preschool programs in Nevada and too few public schools to expand preschool programs, education advocates welcome any help they can get, even if it doesn’t come from traditional partners like school districts.
Sharonda Simon (left) is assisted by Cassandra Adamson as she enrolls children in Strong Start Academy at Lorenzi Park, Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2017, in Las Vegas. This is the first academy run by Variety Early Learning Center. Which one will focus on providing high-quality education and care before children enter kindergarten. Photo: Daniel Clark.
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“We hope this is just the beginning of the city’s efforts and that we can use this example not only for other jurisdictions in Nevada, but across the country,” said Dennis Tanata, executive director of Children’s Advocacy. Member of the interaction and working group that helped make the project a success.
The second Strong Start Academy is scheduled to open later this month, and Bonillo said Henderson Mayor Debra March has also expressed interest in the project.
Nevada has long had a poor early childhood education system. Although there are more than 226,000 children ages 5 and younger in Nevada, the system can serve about 49,000 of them, according to the Alliance for Child Advocacy. The state also ranks last in child care affordability.
A coalition of groups, including the Children’s Defense Alliance, tried to push through the Strong Start campaign. The campaign aims to change the mindset that childcare and preschool are caregivers, highlighting instead that 90 percent of a child’s brain develops by age 5 and that early intervention can be crucial.
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Nevada was able to increase kindergarten enrollment thanks to a four-year Preschool Development Grant that includes $44 million from the federal government and $23 million from the state. The state failed to win federal Race to the Top grants because it did not have a strong early childhood education system, Tanato said, and the pre-K development grant was intended to help Nevada meet the challenge so it could qualify. In this way, subsequent funds retain their new capacity.
At full load, the program will create 1560 new time slots before version K and increase to a full 1430 half-day slots. However, it is unclear whether large federal funds will be available to expand Pre-K when the grant expires in 2018.
“I can say with certainty that access to high-quality early childhood education is not a priority for the current administration,” Tanato said. “With all the other proposals that are going to be cut, I think the best we can hope for over the next few years is to keep what we have.”
In addition to subsidies for the development of preschoolers, new state funding focuses more on improving the quality of kindergartens and early childhood education institutions than on their quantity. These initiatives include work on a quality improvement system to help preschools meet higher standards, a scholarship program to help preschool workers earn college degrees, and efforts to monitor outcomes for preschool children and victims.
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Patti Oya of the Nevada Office of Education and Development said results from new research starting this year could show the benefits of early childhood initiatives.
“Especially low-income kids — they need good quality parts, and if they can’t get them and they’re not ready for school, they’re just starting off on the wrong foot,” she said. “We hope that at least our preschoolers will do well in high-quality institutions.”
However, all these projects are implemented in an environment of uncertainty. Aside from the time-limited subsidy, the infusion of Social Security funds into the Child Care Subsidy Program passed last session is the only one-time solution.
“The state is kind of getting ready to end any further funding and really trying to aggressively look at what other opportunities there are to supplement and sustain these programs,” she said.
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Strong Start Academy supporters, who believe it is the only program of its kind in Nevada, recognize the unique role cities play in meeting the need for preschool and child care. They can act as “conveners” that bring together government agencies, child care providers, grant funds, and nonprofit organizations.
In 2014, mayors unanimously approved a resolution to create an “Early Learning Nation,” and the National League of Cities is launching a project to help cities improve their early childhood education systems and test what works and what doesn’t.
Goodman, whose educational activities include founding The Meadows private school, is spearheading the initiative. The city currently has a Department of Youth Development and Social Innovation, which is tasked with supplementing education through initiatives such as before- and after-school programs and community partnerships such as the Strong Start Academy.
Richard C. in North Las Vegas. Classes for Kindergartens Pre-K will be held on Tuesday, March 21, 2017 at the Primary School. Fr. Photo: Jeff Scheid.
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Clark County School District administrators know that only a small percentage of preschoolers entering the K-12 system attend some type of preschool.
Just look at their own enrollment numbers: Last year, 11,428 children ages 3 to 5 participated in preschool programs offered by the school district. But the total number of kindergartners each year approaches 25,000, said Julie Kasper, the preschool’s director.
Casper said the school district has 483 preschool programs serving general education and special education students. Funding sources for the programs vary, some involving Zoom schools, which receive additional state funding for English learners, and Title 1 schools, which use federal funds to provide additional services to low-income students.
Casper said the school district also runs early childhood programs through a combination of state and federal grants. 4-year-olds participating in Nevada Ready! Preschool scholarship programs require at least 25 hours of preschool attendance per week.
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School District 31 “Nevada Ready!” plans to offer. kindergarten programs this school year, up from 20 last year, Casper said.
While space remains an issue, Casper said the school district would like to continue expanding preschool programs that teach children social skills and self-regulation, as well as introduce them to a large vocabulary of words, letters, shapes, colors and numbers.
As for what the school district will do if federal preschool funding runs out, Casper said she doesn’t know.
Financial uncertainty didn’t dampen the mood at Strong Start Academy as the school celebrated its grand opening last week. Local dignitaries, including the mayor and council members, toured the building, which officials hope will soon be filled with young people.
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A classroom during the grand opening of the first Strong Start Academy at Lorenzi Park in Las Vegas, Wednesday, August 9, 2017. The academy, run by Variety Early Learning Center, is the first of two that will focus on providing high-quality education and care for children before they go to school. before school. Photo: Daniel Clark.
“We definitely want to make sure we have plenty of places for our low-income families,” said Lisa Morris Hibler, the city’s director of youth development and social innovation. “These are the ones who often don’t have a choice, and many people do.
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