Governor Signs Bill to Fully Fund All-Day K

Rhode Island cities and towns that have not implemented all-day kindergarten programs but are working to implement them by the next school year will get a big boost in the form of state aid in the 2016-2017 school year.

The General Assembly approved and the governor has signed legislation to provide full education aid funding for children enrolled in full-day kindergarten, beginning with the 2016-17 school year.

With enactment of this legislation, those communities transitioning to full-day kindergarten during the 2014-15 school year and after will be in line for full funding beginning in Fall, 2016.

Under current law, adopted in 2012, the increase in education aid to school districts that resulted from half-day kindergarten students transitioning to full-day programs was calculated and provided to districts under an established transition funding plan. The result is that districts transitioning from half-day to full-day with four years remaining under the original 2012 transition plan, for instance, would receive 25 percent of full per-child funding each year for four years.

Although the goal of the 2012 legislation was to encourage districts to begin offering full-day kindergarten, the transition plan funding scheme is a disincentive and barrier to some school districts to adopt full-day kindergarten, said the sponsors of the legislation (2014-S 2791A and 2014-H 8219A), Sen. Hanna M. Gallo (D-Dist. 27, Cranston, West Warwick) and Rep. Robert B. Jacquard (D-Dist. 17, Cranston).

The legislation aims to help close Rhode Island’s achievement gap in early education and provide valid incentives for school districts to offer full-day kindergarten programs. But while many studies show the importance of full-day kindergarten to a child’s future learning and academic achievements, the cost of starting up and providing the full day programs has continued to be a hindrance for some communities.

The law will require the Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education to rank applications for one-time start-up costs for those districts that are operating half-day programs and that are changing to full-day programs. Those districts will then be fully funded in rank order.

The law requires that priority be given to districts with enrollment of greater than 8,000 students and, if there are none of those, then to districts with enrollment greater than 4,000 students.