Districts Grappling with Preschool Mandate ; Must Plan for Full-Day Programs Serving at-Risk Kids at No Charge

Summary

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School officials across New Jersey are scrambling to find ways to give free, quality preschool to roughly 30,000 more low-income children statewide, including about 3,000 in Bergen County and 1,000 in Passaic County.

This mandate must be met by the 2013-14 academic year, and state officials hope districts will offer seats to 20 percent of the affected children starting next fall. The new rules say districts must plan to provide full-day pre-kindergarten to every child eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. Districts with many poor families -- such as Hackensack, Lodi and Haledon -- must provide pre- K to all 3- and 4-year olds, regardless of income.

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Districts Grappling with Preschool Mandate ; Must Plan for Full-Day Programs Serving at-Risk Kids at No Charge

Governor Corzine approved this expansion of state-funded pre-K for at-risk children in January, but its details were largely overlooked by the public because of heated debate over changes in state formulas for school funding. These new mandates ...

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