Free digital preschool on the horizon?

A $14.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education is giving children in rural Idaho a chance to attend preschool, albeit with a catch.

Idaho is one of five states that don’t have publicly funded preschool and a lot of families may not be able to afford tuition at private preschools.

The nonprofit Waterford Institute, as part of the Waterford UPSTART program, received the $14.2 million, five-year Education Innovation and Research grant in October 2018 from the U.S. Department of Education.

Waterford is using the grant money to start UPSTART pilot programs in five largely rural states: Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota and South Dakota, which should be up and available for rural families this fall.

UPSTART is “technology-delivered in-home kindergarten readiness,” Claudia Miner, chief UPSTART officer for the Waterford Institute said in a previous interview with the Idaho Statesman.

UPSTART (Utah Preparing Students Today for a Rewarding Tomorrow) is a publicly-funded program that started in 2009 in Utah and has since expanded to other states.

“It’s not called preschool,” she added, “because we don’t do the same things preschool does.”

The program is designed for 4 and 5-year-olds the year before they go into kindergarten.

The program is free to participating families and the program offers an online curriculum with free lessons, digital books and animated songs.

Pinehurst Elementary principal Mike Groves sees the program as a massive boon for children in the area who don’t have access to the limited preschool space available, but also implored the parents who will need to be involved if the program is to be a success for each kid.

“This is a step in the right direction,” Groves said. “Any program that starts teaching kids the fundamentals needed in school is a good thing. Our kindergarten teachers have used Waterford in the past and like the program they used. It appears the success of the online program will depend on the parents ensuring children participate. If they do, kids will come to kindergarten with a working knowledge of their alphabet, sounds and numbers. The amount of benefit to the students and the public schools here will be directly dependent on the amount of time and effort parents put into it.”

Silver Hills Elementary principal Todd Howard likes that the conversation is happening, but has some concerns about the concept of digital or online preschool.

Similar to Groves’ stressing about parent involvement, Howard is worried that parents may not be as involved as necessary, as well as the lack of social interactions between young children, which is key to preschool development.

“The program is a step in the right direction. It shows that there are people talking about the importance of preschool exposure,” Howard said. “Some concerns I have with the online set up is that it requires a parent or caregiver to be part of the process. There are already preschool curriculum programs available and they aren’t being used (as evident by the skills of our incoming kindergarten students). Early education (head start, preschool) should rely heavily on peer interactions. I don’t know how a child will get that exposure doing a program online.”

Howard would like to see funding expanded to allow for preschool-aged students the opportunity to attend a school-based preschool, which the Wallace School District does offer, but in a limited capacity.

“We often have kindergarten children that come to us not knowing any of their letters or numbers. The only options we provide in the Wallace School District is a Special Education based preschool program where students have to be identified through testing to receive special services,” Howard said. “Those types of services would include speech/language, social, emotional, motor skills and pre-academic skills. Preschool’s schedule is two days a week for about four hours each day. I would love to see the district (and) state expand opportunities for our preschool-aged children to a full five-day week of four-hour days. However, without the financial backing, it would be very difficult to get it up and running.”

For more information, contact your local school district or visit www.waterfordupstart.org.