Preschool Registration 3/19
Registration for Richmond City preschools begins this Thursday, March 19th from 9am to 6pm. Registration will be held at all schools except George Mason and Fairfield Court. You should go early to get your first choice of school – especially if your first choice is Fox or Munford. For more info on additional registration dates, times, locations and what to bring, go here.
A recent Times-Dispatch article outlined the funding for the program:
Early childhood initiatives
Virginia is spending $58.6 million on pre-kindergarten programs for fiscal 2009 and will spend $68.8 million in 2010.
Pre-kindergarten spending for 2009-2010 budget increased $26 million from Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s 2007-2008 budget. The program, aimed primarily at low-income, at-risk 4-year-olds, currently serves about one in eight Virginia preschoolers, or 15,600.
Do you know about the Virginia Preschool Initiative or have you had a child go through the program? I’ve heard nothing but good things about it from mothers who enrolled their kids at Fox, Munford, and Fisher. Too bad my son is 28 days too old for the program this year.
Mixed feelings about this. I see mixed studies on the overall value of pre-K and this is yet another example of government expansion. I might feel better about it if the post-K RPS buildings were fully updated with adequate plumbing, roofs, computers, ADA, etc.
My daughter has been attending Pre-K this year at Fisher. Previously she had attended Forest Hill Presbyterian Church Child Care Center. While I wish the VPI program was as enriching as the one she participated in at FHPCCCC, she has learned a great deal and has been happy and engaged. She is making great strides towards being able to read, and in fact can read many words. They have worked a lot with exercises that help with future literacy.
The classroom size, i believe, is a little prohibitive to a wide range of materials used in craft projects, for example. And the wide range of maturity in a group of 18 kids is tricky too. But overall a good program, especially for those who might not otherwise get a preschool education. You can’t argue, either, with “free”. It came at a particularly fortuitous time in our family!
[...] registration is happening along with preschool registration tomorrow, 3/19. All of the necessary documents for pre-k are needed for kindergarten as well. [...]