HELENA, Mt. — KinderSprouts receives state funding to help children at risk of falling behind. But how districts determine eligibility has sparked questions about how the program fits into Montana’s larger childcare system.
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“This is not a universal pre-K,” Justine Alberts, the Helena Public School PK-5 assistant superintendent, said.
Under House Bill 352, Montana school districts can receive state funding for early literacy interventions.
Helena Public Schools’ KinderSprouts program offers free, full-day pre-K for eligible four-year-olds.
The district says KinderSprouts uses literacy and numeracy screenings to determine which children qualify.
“The purpose of the program is to target students at risk for academic needs not being on the trajectory to be proficient by the end of the third grade,” Alberts added.
While the state sets the overall framework, districts set their own screening cut scores.
“They come in and do a screening with a couple of our tools that are approved by the Office of Public Instruction, which is right now we use PELI and MyIGDIS for numeracy, so students are screened; if they qualify, they are invited to participate,” Alberts said.
Supporters of expanding early learning opportunities may point to the benefits of access to pre-K. But some in the childcare community raise concerns about how publicly funded programs could affect private and nonprofit providers.
Rachel Supalla, founder of Discovery Kid Zone childcare, believes state funding should expand to other programs. She says without that support private centers may lose the financial stability needed to maintain care for younger children.
“When funding follows the child, it has a family-first model; families are then allowed to choose which early childhood program best meets their families' needs,” Supalla added.
Currently, KinderSprouts in Helena serves 160 kids across 9 classrooms in the district. To qualify, students must be age 4 by September 10th.
“We are learning colors, letters, and numbers through movement, through exercise, through centers, and cooperation,” KinderSprouts teacher Dana Blomquist said. “We focus on teamwork, and I think that is a valuable part.”
There are also more opportunities through the Zero to Five Montana public-private partnership. In this case, Helena Public Schools, Florence Crittenton, and the Early Childhood Collaborative of the Greater Helena Area.
“We have all been participating in this effort to establish what each entity can do well and can offer our community as a whole opportunity for childcare,” Alberts said.
The Helena School District also says state education funding is currently tied to public school districts. Allowing that money to follow families to private or nonprofit providers would require changes to state law.
