Funds from a state grant intended to strengthen Texas’ prekindergarten programs will help local school districts improve curriculums and family engagement, district officials said.

More than $116 million will be divided between 578 schools statewide, Education Commissioner Mike Morath announced July 5. House Bill 4, passed at the 84^th Texas Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott in 2015, established the grant program.

Hays CISD received $181,308 for the 2015-16 school year and will get $183,554 for the 2016-17 school year when the second disbursement comes in August. San Marcos CISD received $131,695 for 2015-16 and will get $133,327 for the 2016-17 school year.

Officials from both districts say the money is welcome and will benefit the children in their programs. SMCISD had 384 pre-k students enrolled during the 2015-16 school year, while HCISD had 481.

“Pre-k is the foundation of everything that we do,” said Nicole Dray, SMCISD director of elementary curriculum and federal programs.

The important progress made during pre-k can affect a child’s academic career for years after, she said.

“There’s research out right now that states if our students aren’t reading on-level by third grade, they will [most likely] not be successful at state assessment tests and will have a difficult time going forward in school,” said Patty Santoyo, HCISD early childhood program administrator.

At the third grade level, students stop learning to read, and instead begin reading to learn, Dray said.

“When that academic shift is rigorous, that’s where gaps begin to grow, “ Dray said. “It makes it harder for children to be successful as content gets harder. If they’re struggling to be literate, they’re struggling to comprehend [curriculum].”

With the money from the HB4 grant, HCISD and SMCISD will be able to make key changes to improve their districts’ pre-k programs, a move officials believe can create more successful students.

“Research says the single most impactful thing in the classroom for students is the teacher, so we are going to be dedicating a lot of our grant money to the professional development of our teachers and aides,” Santoyo said.

Santoyo said HCISD also hope to use funds from the grant to integrate technology into students’ school day to teach them necessary computer skills.

“A lot of our students don’t have access to computers or tablets at home, so we’re looking forward to bringing technology into the classroom,” she said.

For SMCISD, the largest financial impact from the grant will be in family engagement.

“One of our goals is to make kids successful by making stronger relationships with families,” Dray said. “We want to branch that out so it’s not always just families coming into schools, but its us going to the community to facilitate outreach.”

By developing a strong relationship between home and school, students will have more support academically.

“The learning doesn’t stop just because the school day is over,” Dray said.

Early estimates originally predicted school districts would receive more HB4 grant funds than turned out to be the case once the money was dispersed, Dray said.

“Even though the funding isn’t as much as we were hoping for, it won’t hold us back,” she said. “It will help us reach our goals in a timely manner. It will help us grow the areas that are really strong and help us improve the areas that need improvement."

Some Texas school districts chose not to accept the grant altogether because they couldn’t implement sustainable programs over a long term with just HB4 grant money, Santoyo said.

“We really do need more long-term funding [for pre-k],” she said. “We’re hoping the legislature will look at the need and continue [the grant] and put something else in place to really aide in having a continued long-term funding for pre-k.”