Legislation would make changes to successful Quincy School District program

QUINCY — Changes may be coming to a Quincy School District program that have shown some success in getting children ready for kindergarten.

Colleen Frerks, director of the district’s Whole Child program, told Quincy School Board members the Transitional Kindergarten program is for children who have had little or no access to preschool classes.

“These students were identified because they had a risk of being not quite prepared for kindergarten, and they needed that transitional kindergarten opportunity in order to be ready to really benefit from kindergarten when they turned 5,” she said.

Frerks spoke briefly about the program, and in more detail about possible coming changes, during the regular board meeting Feb. 28.

The program did help prepare a number of children, Frerks said, according to results of a test administered to incoming kindergarten students. Children in the transitional kindergarten program scored close to or above children with similar preschool classes.

A bill currently under consideration in the Washington Legislature would change the program, moving jurisdiction from the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction to a partnership between OSPI and the Division of Children, Youth and Family Services.

“Funding changes are the big piece,” Frerks said.

Currently the TK program is funded through OSPI, but under the new legislation, it would be paid for through the reimbursement paid by the state’s early childhood education programs. Frerks said that means less money per pupil. A separate piece of legislation also under consideration would raise reimbursement for early childhood education, which should come close to making up the difference.

“It would still be less per student, but not as disparate as it would be right now,” she said.

District superintendent Nik Bergman said there would be a couple of challenges for Quincy, if the legislation doesn’t change.

Quincy district officials would like to use money from the multilingual program to help pay some of the costs for transitional kindergarten students who qualify for assistance from that program. That’s not allowed in the current version of the bill. Bergman said about 63% of the children would qualify for multilingual funding.

The second challenge would be getting children in the program to school, he said.

In answer to a question from board member Tricia Lubach, Bergman said the district wouldn’t receive funding for providing transportation for transitional kindergarten students.

“Transportation is a significant barrier for our families, and without us being able to provide transportation to our TK students, it would be almost impossible for the majority of our families (to provide transportation),” Bergman said.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com.