By Susan Shinn Turner

Smart Start Rowan

SALISBURY — Andrew Smith and his wife, Rachel, have a son, Noah, who will start prekindergarten this fall. But Smith says he had quite a learning curve when finding out about Rowan County’s pre-K options — which is a little ironic since he is chief strategy officer for Rowan-Salisbury Schools.

“My parents and Rachel’s parents have been taking care of Noah since he was born,” Smith explains. “All along, we knew we had to start looking for a pre-K experience. It was in the back of our minds.”

It got further pushed to the back burner when their son Landon was born six months ago. Then in mid-January, Smith heard that a friend missed a deadline for pre-K enrollment. Smith thought to himself, “What deadline?”

He quickly sprang into action, talking with a colleague, Kelly Street, as well as Amy Brown, executive director of Smart Start Rowan, about options and resources for Noah.

Smith wanted a facility that was close to his office at the Wallace Education Forum, and he and his wife ended up visiting three facilities. They chose one they felt best met the needs of Noah, who’s full of energy and loves to be outside.

“It happened really fast because I thought I messed up,” Smith says. “But the experience of walking through each facility and seeing the kids interact was really helpful and put my mind at ease. But it was a huge learning curve.”

Local experts in early childhood education agree that new parents might not be aware of all of the pre-K options in Rowan County.

Basically, there are five options:

• N.C. Pre-K (formerly More at 4), a state-funded program offering high-quality early education for at-risk 4-year-olds.

• Title I Pre-K, located in four Rowan-Salisbury schools and based on academic needs.

• Exceptional Children’s (EC) Pre-K, located in four county schools and based on Individualized Education Plan (IEP) team decisions.

• Head Start, a federally funded program that’s income-based and high-need based.

• Private-pay child care programs, including pre-K both licensed or nonlicensed, as well as full-day or half-day options available.

To participate in NC Pre-K or Title I Pre-K programs, your child must turn 4 on or before Aug. 31 of the year they start the program.

Each option has different eligibility criteria and methods. For example, N.C. Pre-K is based on income and other factors such as developmental delays, chronic health conditions, ESL, and families who are active military.

N.C. Pre-K is under the Division of Child Development and Early Education, Brown says, and is also part of child care licensing requirements. N.C. Pre-K classrooms are in six Rowan-Salisbury schools and two Kannapolis city schools, as well as Head Start sites, and private child care facilities.

Some 31 classrooms at 20 sites serve 378 children, Brown says.

“In Rowan County, we have 1,400 rising kindergartners,” says Street, director of early childhood for Rowan-Salisbury Schools. “Presently, we know from the North Carolina Early Childhood Foundation that less than 30% of these rising kindergartners have received any formal pre-K experiences. One of our goals in partnering with our local NC Pre-K and Head Start agencies is to identify children not being served at our pre-K sites and find available spots in other pre-K classrooms.

“We would love to see all 1,400 children receiving some type of early learning experiences prior to kindergarten.”

Title I is a federally funded program that does not fall under licensing requirements. There’s also an exceptional children’s pre-K program. There are four EC classrooms and four Title I classrooms within the school system, along with the eight N.C. Pre-K classrooms.

Title I admission is based on academic need, Street says. Because of federal funding guidelines, the deadline for Title I applications was Feb. 28, and the deadline for N.C. Pre-K applications is May 24. However, the N.C. Pre-K program continues to accept applications after this deadline and places eligible children if there are openings.

“Parents and caregivers need to start planning early,” Street says.

So where to start? Those interested in Rowan-Salisbury Schools’ Title I opportunities should contact Emily Teeter, Title 1 pre-K and parent coordinator, at 704-636-7500.

Laura Villegas, Smart Start Rowan’s director of programs, says that it’s perfectly fine to call the programs you’re interested in directly. Or,if you don’t know where to start, you may call a child care referral specialist in Rowan County at 704-210-1008.

You may also call Smart Start Rowan at 704-630-9085 and ask for Jeannie Quellhorst or Rowan-Salisbury Schools at 704-636-7500 and ask for Kelly Street.

“There’s definitely been a shift in community understanding that education begins at birth, not kindergarten,” Brown says. “So we want to bridge the gap to make the transition to kindergarten easier. Smart Start Rowan serves children birth to 5, and Rowan-Salisbury Schools primarily serves children kindergarten through Grade 12. However, we have made great strides together to serve all children and their families, to ensure high quality learning experiences.”

“As a county,” Street says, “we have learned that early childhood education is a community responsibility, and we are working with Smart Start and other early childhood partners to serve our youngest citizens. Over the last two decades, Rowan-Salisbury Schools has made a shift in the opportunities we provide prior to the K-12 experience. We have added NC Pre-K classrooms to our schools sites and built our Title I and EC Pre-K programs each year. Increasing early childhood opportunities in our schools has become a priority.”

Those who work in early childhood education, she says, have found “we can blend funding and share resources.” That includes training and professional development for Title I teachers, which now offers these trainings to teachers from other pre-K programs as well, Street says.

“All of our resources and funding are limited. If we share and blend funding more intentionally, we can save money for other necessary resources, such as providing more mental health services for our students and families, which has become a priority. Finding ways to stretch our resources between our agencies allows us to think more outside the box for these needed resources.”

Brown says the hope is for an eventual clearinghouse for all pre-K programs. Until then, she says, “We can have a uniform message for parents in Rowan County to assist them in making sure their child gets into the pre-K program that’s the best fit for that family.”

Smart Start Rowan is a United Way member agency.