As the 89th Texas Legislature is set to convene in January, funding for full-day pre-K is top of mind for school districts across the San Antonio metro and public education advocacy organization Raise Your Hand Texas.

The Texas Legislature passed House Bill 3 in 2019, which expanded access to full-day pre-K and established the Early Education Allotment to support early childhood education learning goals. However, despite requiring districts to offer full-day pre-K, the state only provides funding for half-day pre-K.

In Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City ISD, pre-K enrollment varies across campuses, and classrooms remain at maximum capacity while the district attempts to ensure that all qualified students receive a quality education.

“While we do provide pre-K full day, the financial impact to our district financially is significant,” said Sarah Dauphinais, Executive Director of Elementary Education for SCUCISD. “I really would love to see a state where we fund pre-K for all kids, and that you don't have to qualify to attend.”

Enrollment and funding challenges

Most pre-K students meet the state's qualifying criteria for free pre-K, which includes low socioeconomic status, active duty military, emergent bilingualism and special education status, among other characteristics. Additionally, some districts are able to offer tuition-based enrollment for students.

Qualifying criteria often prevent students across the state from enrolling in free pre-K programming. Income eligibility requires families to be within 185% of the federal poverty line. For example, a family of four would have to have an income of $58,000 or less to qualify for free pre-K programming. Currently, the median family income in Texas sits at $86,000, leaving many students without the ability to enroll. The National Institute for Early Education Research reports that Texas public pre-K programs only enroll 52% of 4-year-old children in the state.

Given the difficulty many families face qualifying for pre-K in Texas, funding for those enrolled in pre-K remains stagnant. According to the National Institute for Early Education Research, state spending per pre-K student is $4,235, which is $1,500 less than what Texas spent in 2002 and $3,000 below the national average.

Although districts are able to use the Early Education Allotment to cover the remaining cost of full-day pre-K, it also means diverting funding from K-3 programs—an approach that has become a delicate balance. One of the changes SCUCISD hopes to see come out of the next legislative session is dedicated full-day funding that would allow for more teachers to be hired to be able to maintain smaller class sizes.

“It would be lovely if we could say, ‘Pre-K for all,’” said Serena Georges-Penny, Director of Curriculum and Professional Development for SCUCISD. “It is so important, and right now, we have the criteria that we follow, but it would be nice to also be able to say, ‘Yes, we have open enrollment for pre-K, just like we do for kindergarten,’ so that we can set the foundation for all students.”

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic causing some disruptions for students in terms of emotional and academic success, the district has managed to return pre-K classes to the education levels they had before the pandemic. However, the half-day funding structure is exacerbating other classroom challenges that spiked during the pandemic, particularly teacher retention. SCUCISD—and many other school districts across Texas—continues to struggle with retaining full-time pre-K teachers with only half-day funding.

However, the pandemic has affected the district’s ability to keep pre-K classes staffed based on the number of students and funding it receives. The full-day pre-K mandate has resulted in challenges related to retaining full-time pre-K teachers with only half-day funding.

“Texas House District 123 includes campuses from three school districts,” said Diego Bernal, Chair of the Texas House Early Childhood Caucus and state representative for House District 123. “I’ve met with them all. In school after school, teachers would identify a full-day pre-K program as a key factor contributing to a student’s success. There is no question that the Legislature must fully fund districts offering full-day, quality pre-K programs and ensure all districts have the capacity to do so.”

Improving student outcomes

Enrolling students in pre-K has immense cognitive and social-emotional benefits. Early exposure to school routines and learning experiences improves academic readiness and strengthens the transition into elementary school education.

“If you enroll your student in a pre-K program, he or she is going to be ready to take on the rest of school,” said Bob Popinski, senior director of policy at Raise Your Hand Texas. “You're less likely to drop out, less likely to need additional help, more likely to graduate high school, and more likely to persist in a two-year or four-year university degree. All of those are important aspects of a child’s ongoing success in school. Pre-K is one of the best answers to make sure our kids are off on the right foot.”

Part of ensuring student success in SCUCISD also means making sure students are experiencing not only social and educational benefits, but also setting them up for success at home.

“The pre-K program itself is the foundation,” Georges-Penny said. “It really helps to set the tone for the students as they're getting ready to move into kindergarten. They're learning how to play, be in school and make friends. Once you know the child, you know their family, and then you know what type of teacher and what type of instruction they'll need when they enter kindergarten.”

In the last three years, SCUCISD has gone through a district-wide effort to align all of its pre-K classrooms to ensure best practices and the latest research are utilized across all of our schools to offer students the best experience possible.

“We have gone through three years of development together as a team with our support partners from Region 20, and our curriculum coordinators in our own district,” Dauphinais said. “We want to make sure the learning environments look the same, and that they have the same type of furniture in their classrooms, the same resources, materials and stations. It was really important that our programs are equitable.”

In addition to serving more students, additional funds could also help Texas reach quality pre-K benchmarks associated with improved student outcomes. Currently, Texas only meets four of the 10 NIEER quality standards for preschool, including early learning standards; teacher degree requirements; specialized training for early learning; and health screening and referrals for children.

Among other missed benchmarks, Texas does not require a one-to-11 teacher-student ratio, a class size limit of 20 students, degree-holding assistant teachers or a quality improvement system.

How to get involved

To stay informed about important legislative issues in Texas, sign up for Raise Your Hand Texas’ Across the Lawn Newsletter. You can also sign up here to advocate for Texas public schools during the upcoming legislative session. For more information about Raise Your Hand Texas, visit www.raiseyourhandtexas.org.

The above story was produced by Senior Multi Platform Journalist Sierra Rozen with Community Impact's Storytelling team with information solely provided by the local business as part of its "sponsored content" purchase through our advertising team.