A full day: All-day kindergarten headed to Geneva

Geneva District 304 has opened all-day kindergarten registration for the 2014-15 school year, a new option in the school district. Parents still will have the option of a half-day program if they choose.

A kindergarten study committee found that students would receive a stronger educational foundation to meet the state's Common Core Standards, as well as more opportunities for their developmental and social-emotional needs, Geneva officials said.

And as officials seemed poised to approve it, parents said they wanted it, as Jennifer and Matthew Cox did at a forum.

"We have a kindergartner there right now at Heartland now and a son who will be going there in a few years," Jennifer Cox said. "We have found that it's such a rigorous program. It's only 2 1/2 hours ... and there's so much to learn."

St. Charles District 303, Batavia District 101 and Kaneland District 302 already offer the option of full-day kindergarten. Batavia partners with the Batavia Park District for half of its all-day program. The Geneva Park District offers Kinderzone, a recreation-based program for kindergarten students.

Geneva Park District spokeswoman Traci Wicks said the additional program in Geneva could affect attendance at Kinderzone.

"It will give parents a full-day option," Wicks said. "It's up to parents who they want to educate their child – with more recreation or school curriculum at that early age. We are still going to offer our program the way it is set up currently."

Unlike the other districts' programs, Geneva parents will not have to pay tuition for the full-day program. The additional kindergarten program will cost the district about $352,650 and an additional one-time startup cost of $78,000, officials said.

House Bill 2405 would have amended the Illinois School Code to make full-day kindergarten mandatory state-wide by the 2016 school year, but the bill was re-referred to committee last March and has not budged since then. Steve Brown, a spokesman for House Speaker Michael Madigan said lawmakers believe it would be money well spent, but it is not likely to move forward this session because of cost.

"People concluded while it's a worthwhile idea, it would be a cost-prohibitive idea, given state and local school district budgets," Brown said. "It would be an unfunded mandate. That is why they are not pushing the legislation this year."

Kaneland Superintendent Jeffrey Schuler said the district began offering all-day kindergarten more as an economical service to families whose children were taking the bus to a local preschool or day care for the other half of the day. About half of the district's 320 kindergartners are in the all-day program.

Sarah Mumm, the Kaneland director of educational services for kindergarten through fifth grade, said the program is set up to allow children to have core academics in the morning with an afternoon opportunity to explore that curriculum with activities.

"Say in the morning, they're counting by 10s. In the afternoon, they have a math station where they are putting things in groups of 10,"  Mumm said. "It's really an extenuation of what they learn in the early half of the day."

Mumm said not every child is ready for all-day kindergarten.

"We see such a wide range of students coming into kindergarten, from kids who take a 90-minute nap to children who have not had a nap since they were 2," Mumm said. "There is no nap. We are not in a day care setting."

As to all-day kindergarten helping children get ahead academically, Mumm said research does not support that. Citing a 2006 study by the Rand Corporation, a non-profit research organization, Mumm said the research shows children who went to full-day kindergarten had a decreased need for remediation in first grade.

But whatever gains these children made did not continue. Analysis showed the positive effects of all-day kindergarten was reduced by half by the end of first grade and eliminated by the end of third grade, according to the study.

"Is all-day kindergarten really worth it? I think it really depends upon the child and the specific situation of the child," Mumm said. "It is worth it for that child who is inspired by learning and thrives by wanting more."

Geneva's kindergarten study committee recommended all-day kindergarten as a prerequisite for Common Core Standards, a national plan adopted by most states, including Illinois, to standardize what is expected from students at each grade level.

Regardless of what other studies show, Andrew Barrett, director of teaching and learning for District 304, full-day kindergarten is an opportunity to prepare students for Common Core Standards.

Barrett said changing kindergarten also will mean changing first grade, second grade, third grade and so on, in light of the Common Core Standards.

"We want to make sure we can provide a program that supports kids in achieving those standards," Barrett said. "We believe providing all day, every day, for all students gives us the opportunity to have an academically rigorous and developmentally appropriate program for all students – and one that can put all of our students on the best path to success."