Establish Universal Full Day Kindergarten

Full-day kindergarten boosts student achievement for children at all income levels.[i]

What Can Policymakers Do?

· Ensure that all children have access to full-day kindergarten within their home school district. In most states, local school boards have discretion over kindergarten program decisions. It is important that state policies encourage broader local access to full-day programs. States can:

• Enact a consistent statewide policy requiring school districts to offer full-day kindergarten. Ten states mandate school districts offer full-day kindergarten programs in legislation or regulation.[ii] Delaware is the most recent state to institute a statutory requirement.

• Include full-day kindergarten as an explicit and primary component in state P-20 reform initiatives. Washington Learns, established by legislation in 2005[iii] and co-chaired by the governor, recommends reforms to the state’s entire education system from early childhood through post-secondary education and workforce training, and includes voluntary full-day kindergarten for all students as an explicit strategy.[iv] The Governor of Arizona’s School Readiness Action Plan includes full-day kindergarten as a critical tenet of a high quality early childhood education system.

· Ensure that the state provides funding parity for full-day kindergarten (at a level that is consistent with the state’s funding for 1st grade). Funding impacts the rate and scope of implementation.

• Establish strong incentives in state school funding formulas for school districts to offer full-day kindergarten. New Mexico offers full-day kindergarten funding that is 20 percent greater than the funding provided for 1^st grade. Through legislation[vi] in 2000, the state was the first in the nation to provide for voluntary FDK. Through phased-in enhanced funding over five years, the state targeted districts with the highest rates of low-income students, students whose first language is not English, and high-mobility families.

• Implement categorical funding programs that encourage school districts to offer full-day kindergarten. Categorical programs can support phased-in implementation of full-day kindergarten, or as a means to target resources to children with particular risk factors or who live in specific geographic areas. Massachusetts more than doubled full-day kindergarten enrollment between 2000 and 2007 by offering grants to help local districts transition from half- to full-day programs and to improve the quality of existing full-day programs.[vi]

• Encourage school districts to use a portion of their federal Title I funds to support full-day kindergarten programs. Schools that have 40 percent or more of their enrolled children who qualify as low-income may use Title I funds to implement “school-wide” initiatives, including full-day kindergarten. Indiana developed concrete written guidance for districts on how to maximize the use of Title I funds, as part of a comprehensive set of policies to expand access to full-day kindergarten.

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[i] Ackerman, D.J., Barnett, W.S. and Robin, K.B. (2005). Making the most of kindergarten: Present trends and future issues in the provision of full-day programs. New Brunswick, NJ: National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER), Rutgers University; Cannon, J. S., Jacknowitz, A., and Painter, G. (2006). Is full better than half? Examining the longitudinal effects of full-day kindergarten attendance. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 25 (2), 299-321