Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Schools

Finding right pre-K class might not be quite so easy

Some parents struggle to find spots for their children without accepting a long drive or lower teacher credentials.

By JEFFREY S. SOLOCHEK
Published July 17, 2005

Judy Hughes has a 4-year-old named Jonathan. Florida has a brand new state-funded prekindergarten program.

Getting the two together hasn't been easy.

Only one private provider in her far northwest Hillsborough ZIP code offers the classes, and it has set aside just nine seats. More than four times as many Odessa families have registered for the state program.

Parents don't have to choose classes close to home. They can even cross county lines.

But for Hughes, who is seeking both convenience and quality, the choices have been limited.

Few preschools are participating in Westchase to the south and Oldsmar to the west. Looking east to Carrollwood, plenty of providers have open seats, but just a handful are accredited.

"There were a couple in my area," Hughes said earlier this week, after registering a smiling, blond Jonathan for the state program. "One didn't even meet the drive-by test."

She eventually found a center she deemed acceptable about 6 miles from home. But Hughes' struggle illustrates a glitch in the new program: Area by area, the availability of seats, especially high-quality ones, varies widely.

Even as Hillsborough and Pinellas counties boast more seats than students - something many counties cannot do - pockets of each lack enough spots to meet demand. Those areas include relatively well-off communities, such as Riverview in eastern Hillsborough and Snell Isle in Pinellas, along with less affluent ones.

One section of Largo had no participating centers despite 30 children looking for seats.

Other areas have many open spots, but few accredited providers. Parents can drive through large portions of south Pinellas County, for instance, without ever finding an accredited, participating center.

And that's becoming increasingly important, as parents have begun asking about curriculum and teacher credentials as much as location and price, said Janet Chapman, executive director of the Pinellas Early Learning Coalition.

Of 144 participating schools in Pinellas, just 43 were accredited, according to the most recent available information. In Hillsborough, 57 of 169 schools were accredited.

Accreditation means the schools meet stringent standards set by independent review boards.

Some places, such as parts of Plant City and Seminole, have a wealth of top-rated schools in the system. Others have none.

Lt. Gov. Toni Jennings said the situation is a function of the market. The program is called voluntary pre-K, she pointedly noted recently: Parents and centers can choose whether to take part.

If enough parents push a specific school to offer seats, Jennings said, they might force the issue.

That could prove a hard sell, though, especially to the independent schools considered top-notch by virtue of their ratings.

Consider the explanation of why the Jewish Community Center in Citrus Park, accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, chose not to offer the state program.

First, director Leni Sack said, it has dozens of parents willing to pay much more than the state's $2,500-a-year reimbursement for three hours of daily pre-K. Sack considers that amount too low to cover what she offers. By not participating, the school also can avoid cumbersome state regulations.

Second, and related, the state rules represent a moving target, Sack continued. With all the possible confusion, she said, its better to maintain the JCC program as is.

Even one of the participating directors, Wendy Viles of Hand in Hand Academy in Lutz, cautioned Jennings during a meeting that the school's participation could be temporary.

Hand in Hand is trying to take part in the state endeavor without watering down teacher credentials or curriculum offerings, Viles said. But if the money proves too little to do it right, she added, she might drop out too.

Few should be surprised, said Linda Alexionok, prekindergarten director for the Tallahassee-based Children's Campaign, an advocacy group.

"Some of what is now happening was obvious, if you would have just followed the dots in terms of what wasn't in the legislation," Alexionok contended.

Despite voters' 2002 approval of a "high quality" universal prekindergarten program, the lawmakers did not require specific curriculum for pre-K and did not mandate that teachers have degrees or certification. They set up a program without any standards by which to measure schools, Alexionok contended.

Schools that survived in the private sector before will continue to do so privately, Alexionok figured, while those who can exist on the state subsidy will do so at the cost of quality.

Suzanne Gellens, executive director of the Tampa-based Early Childhood Association of Florida, said she understands many schools' reluctance to join.

"What business would take a loss on purpose?" she asked. "Quality schools don't need to do this."

But parents and students could be the ones who suffer, Gellens said. She urged parents to look at checklists designed to help them find high-quality programs, and also to consider this new program a pilot that will get better.

Meanwhile, directors of the local early learning coalitions said they would reach out to more providers, particularly in poorly represented areas, in an attempt to get them to join.

Jodie Caviness of Town 'N Country hopes the effort succeeds, for the benefit of her daughter, Angelina. Caviness, a court reporter, wants to find a school that won't put her at the bottom of a free program waiting list, or press for added money for added services.

And she, too, wants convenience and quality. Angelina, who has stayed at home most of her four years, deserves nothing less, Caviness said: "She needs to go. It's going to be good for her."

Jeffrey S. Solochek can be reached at 813 269-5304 or solochek@sptimes.com

[Last modified July 17, 2005, 01:04:06]