Full Day Kindergarten
As of March, 2020, “Of Pennsylvania’s 500 school districts, 428 provide full-day kindergarten to all students, according to the state Department of Education. The rest mostly offer half-day, with some districts offering both — though the full-day programs may not be open to all students, the department said.” [1] Souderton School District is one of the few school districts in Pennsylvania that still does not offer full day kindergarten.
Full day kindergarten eases the financial burden of working parents, who otherwise need to find and pay for care for those out-of-school hours. It does impact the school budget, so decisions about staffing and building space allocations for these extra students must be carefully considered.
Full day kindergarten boosts students’ academic achievement and strengthens social and emotional skills. “Herman (1984) describes in detail the advantages of full-day kindergarten. He and others believe full-day programs provide a relaxed, unhurried school day with more time for a variety of experiences, greater opportunity for screening and assessment to detect and deal with potential learning problems, and more occasions for good quality interaction between adults and students.” [2][3]
Our organization, while supporting full day kindergarten, also believes that five year-olds need ample unstructured time to engage in free play. It is critical when implementing full day kindergarten that children are met at their own developmental level, which varies greatly at this age. They must be given time for self-guided exploration and socialization in addition to the extra academic time that can be incorporated into the students’ day.
Note that SASD is moving forward with the full day kindergarten initiative, and the next step is approval during the budget process in 2022. Our organization wants to ensure that full day kindergarten is implemented in a way that is fiscally responsible, beneficial to families, includes plenty of unstructured play time, and supports kindergarteners at their own developmental levels.
[2] https://dpi.wi.gov/early-childhood/kind/full-day-advantages
[3] Herman (1984) refers to the book: Herman, Barry E. Case for the All-Day Kindergarten. Phi Delta Kappa Intl Inc, 1984.