Alabama to add 96 new pre-k classrooms in the fall

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama’s First Class Pre-Okay program Tuesday was acknowledged for the sixteenth consecutive yr for assembly 10 out of 10 high quality benchmarks advisable by the Nationwide Institute for Early Training Analysis, the Alabama College Readiness Alliance introduced. 

The state can also be so as to add 96 new pre-k school rooms in 35 counties within the fall, Gov. Kay Ivey’s workplace introduced Tuesday. The brand new school rooms, which can open this system as much as 26,658 youngsters and convey the state’s complete to greater than 1,481 school rooms, are made potential by a primary spherical of funding launched by the Alabama Division of Early Childhood Training. 

“Extra school rooms shall be funded primarily based on additional analysis of high-needs areas previous to the graduation of the 2022-2023 faculty yr,” Ivey’s workplace stated in an announcement. 

“Alabama’s First Class Pre-Okay has as soon as once more been acknowledged as a nationwide mannequin for delivering high-quality early childhood schooling that provides our youngest residents a robust begin to their instructional journey,” Ivey stated in an announcement. “I’m glad to see that much more college students can have entry to pre-Okay subsequent yr and sit up for the day that every one Alabama households who need pre-Okay for his or her youngsters have entry.”

The Alabama Legislature authorised Ivey’s advisable Fiscal Yr 2023 price range, which included a $22.5 million enhance for the Workplace of College Readiness, which administers First Class Pre-Okay. 

“We’re excited to serve an extra 1,728 college students in our First Class Pre-Okay program within the coming yr,” Barbara Cooper, secretary of Early Childhood Training, stated in an announcement. “We’re thrilled that Governor Ivey and our state leaders proceed to put money into early childhood schooling supporting Alabama First Class Pre-Okay in sustaining all 10 NIEER high quality benchmarks for 16 years operating.”

The Alabama College Readiness Alliance’s Pre-Okay Activity Drive, fashioned in 2006, first proposed increasing voluntary pre-k entry to all households in 2012, and since then the state’s funding in Alabama’s First Class Pre-Okay program elevated 694 p.c, from $19 million to $151.2 million, and this system grew from enrolling six p.c of the state’s four-year-olds in 2012 to 42 p.c through the 2021-22 faculty yr. 

The state has a objective of enrolling a minimum of 70 p.c of Alabama’s four-year-olds in First Class Pre-Okay courses by the 2025-2026 faculty yr.  

Editor’s word: This story was initially revealed at alreporter.com.

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