“This is the most important bill signing that we’re doing,” said Utah Gov. Spencer Cox at a ceremonial bill signing at Daniels Canyon Elementary School.
He and Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson signed several bills Wednesday.
Among them was HB 477 Full-day Kindergarten Amendments, sponsored by Rep. Robert Spendlove of Sandy.
“It essentially makes all-day kindergarten available to every student in the state. It gives full funding for all-day kindergarten throughout our state,” Spendlove said.
Cox said it’s taken 20 years for the bill to finally come together, adding that it will make a major difference for Utah’s students.
“The teachers… Read More
Kristin Robinson loves teaching kindergarten.
“I absolutely love being the children’s first teacher they will have in elementary school and setting the path for their educational career,” Robinson said in a statement to the Observer. “It is important to me that I instill a love for learning in my students that will last a lifetime.”
Robinson, who is Tomoka Elementary’s Teacher of the Year, is in her 18th year teaching.
She wanted to be a teacher for as long as she could remember, she said.
“As a child, I looked up to my mother who was an elementary school teacher… Read More
Moriah Lopez has a son who turned 4 in December, which previously would have meant that he would be eligible for kindergarten this fall.
New legislation passed in 2023, however, now requires that kindergarten students be 5 years old by Sept. 1, instead of the previous cutoff of Jan. 1. This change sent Lopez into a spiral for weeks, trying to figure out her next steps.
The mother of two didn’t know why the law changed. She didn’t know if the preschool her son attended would have space for him for another year or if she would need to pay… Read More
SALT LAKE CITY — Should full-day kindergarten be used in place of child care now that federal funding is expiring?
During the 2023 legislative session, the Utah Legislature passed HB 477, “Full Day Kindergarten Amendments.” Every school district in Utah now has a full-day kindergarten option. In fact, nearly 8,000 of the youngest Utahns finished their first year of full-day kindergarten classes in August.
With the expiration of a $24 billion federal COVID-19 pandemic support program, more than 70,000 child-care programs nationwide are projected to close. About 3.2 million children could lose their spots due to the end of the… Read More
Six school districts and two educational associations are covering the state of Colorado over the Universal Preschool Program. The lawsuit states in part that the new program has not addressed concerns about violations of laws regarding the rights of children with disabilities.
The lawsuit also raises concerns about the adequacy and transparency of funding. Districts claim the program was rushed, poorly designed and confusing to parents and that the rollout of the program is causing damage and lost revenue.
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The plaintiffs include the Colorado Association of School Executives, Consortium of Directors of Special Education, Brighton School District… Read More
This article about play-based kindergarten was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education.
EVERETT, Wash. — On a sunny winter morning in Sara Stevens’ kindergarten classroom at Pathfinder Kindergarten Center, 5- and 6-year olds learned about colors, shapes, engineering and design.
Not a pencil or worksheet was in sight, however. These kids were playing.
Standing in front of a child-size kitchen in the corner of the classroom, Jamila dropped a plastic tomato, a hot dog, a banana and a fish into a small metal pot.
“The cake’s ready!” she proclaimed… Read More
As a result of declining enrollments and budget shortages, DCP Alum Rock High School, a small charter school with roughly 200 students, will close its doors this summer, the Mercury News reported.
“I know once the board said ‘yes, we recommend closing it,’ we took a breath … and once we walked out that door, it was just (a blow),” Madison Christian Sumpter, a junior at Downtown College Prep Alum Rock High School, told the Mercury News.
Since the 2019-20 academic year, when the Covid-19 pandemic shook California school systems, DCP Alum Rock High School’s enrollment has decreased by 30%.… Read More
Editor’s note: This story led off this week’s Future of Learning newsletter, which is delivered free to subscribers’ inboxes every other Wednesday with trends and top stories about education innovation. Subscribe today!
*Update: On January 4, 2023, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed NJ Bill S588, more commonly known as the information and media literacy education bill, into law. The legislation will require information and media literacy to be taught across K-12, making it the most comprehensive media literacy bill in the nation.
New Jersey is set to become the first state in the nation to mandate teaching media literacy… Read More
