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03/18/2020 09:32 AMOld Saybrook’s public Early Childhood Program (ECP) is undergoing a shift and expansion in an effort to make it more accessible to all children in the community, regardless of income. The Board of Education (BOE) has approved year one of the plan, the 2020–’21 school year, for which tuition will be reduced from $4,440 to $3,450. The intention is to reduce tuition further each year, resulting in no tuition by year four.
The ECP program has changed substantially since its start. It began in the mid-1980s to addressing developmental disabilities with the goal of helping children aged three and four prepare for kindergarten. Over time, children with other risk factors, such requiring assistance with English language learning, were included in the program. Children needing this additional support have been enrolled at no charge to the parents.
Typical peers—children without developmental delays—have been part of the program to serve as role models as well as to benefit from the program themselves, explained Katherine Bai, the district’s director of Pupil and Professional Services.
“[O]ver the past few years, we’ve had many more students in those classrooms that don’t have development disabilities than do,” said Bai. “We might have two [children with special needs] in a classroom. And the rest are your typical peers.”
A Change in Focus
This shifting enrollment, together with research by school administrators, has led to a change in focus, explained Old Saybrook Public Schools Superintendent Jan Perruccio.
“[T]here’s so much research that says that there’s benefit to providing early childhood programming for all children,” she said. “It makes sense to develop a program that meets all students’ needs.
“The [statistic] that really stands out in my mind is that every dollar spent in early childhood education is anywhere between $6 and $9 that you don’t have to spend as that child comes into adulthood,” she continued.
Studies have shown connections—if not direct correlations—between socio-emotional learning and preparedness for school, Perruccio explained. In other words, gently introducing young children to the classroom while addressing their particular needs or barriers appears to improve their ease with socializing with their peers, which then helps with their ability to focus on academics, which in turn improves their success after graduation, whether in college or the workplace, according to Bai and Perruccio.
Governors Dannel Malloy and Ned Lamont have “talked a lot about early childhood programming and dollars for early childhood,” Perruccio continued, but “the dollars didn’t materialize...So we decided to roll up our sleeves and address it ourselves.”
The group of administrators working on the transition are Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment Amity Goss; Kathleen E. Goodwin Elementary School Principal Heston Sutman, Perruccio, and Bai. The group presented its proposal to the BOE in January.
The plan is structured “in such a way that doesn’t have a huge impact on the budget in any one year,” said Perruccio. The district’s proposed budget is less than one percent above last year’s, despite hiring an additional teacher and increasing enrollment by at least 10 students.
The fact that the BOE has so far approved just year one actually benefits the process, she explained.
“[T]hat gives us an opportunity to pilot it,” she said. “It gives us an opportunity to understand if we’re going in the right direction. Then we will go back to them, let them know how it’s going, and talk about what might be appropriate for year two.”
‘Really About Money?’
The administrators’ research also has a local component: A survey of parents of kindergarteners that pinpoints the reasons for their choosing or not choosing the ECP for their children.
“We’re trying to make sure, are we hitting the appropriate issue?” said Perruccio. “Is it really about money? What other issues are impediments to people going with our program? Is it before- and after-school care? Is it summer care?”
The next step will be a survey of the families who are enrolling their children in the ECP for the 2020–’21 school year to determine their reasons for choosing the program. Both sets of surveys will inform the administrators’ report to the BOE in the spring.
“We don’t want money to be the factor why they’re not coming,” said Bai.
Tuition for the program has been low compared to many other programs, yet not all families can afford it—and some parents seem to be uncomfortable with the prospect of accepting financial assistance.
“We’ve had a feeling [money] might be a barrier and we don’t want that to be,” she said.
Not every three-year-old is ready for a full-day program, Bai and Perruccio acknowledged, and this may be another issue warranting future consideration. At this point, however, the cost of transporting those kids home mid-day is prohibitive.
“So we try to mitigate the impact of that,” said Perruccio. “There is naptime...There’s lots downtime. Lots of playtime. It’s very play-oriented. Because again, it’s that building of those socio-emotional skills that are just so important.”
Kids who don’t have the opportunity to spend time in a social learning environment during these early years might miss out, she said.
“[W]e may down the road say, ‘There’s a whole group that [isn’t ready for] a full day’” and accommodate that, said Bai.
The five pre-school classrooms next year will continue to be a combination of three- and four-year-olds, but that mix of ages is also something the administrators will examine.
“That’s the exciting thing,” said Perruccio. “We get to go out now, send teachers out to say, ‘How do we want to reinvent ourselves and what is the latest and the greatest?’ And it’s something you should do every few years or so, anyway.”
Perruccio said it’s a misconception that the district’s ECP is a special education program, as the focus has been shifting away from that model for some years. But the specialists, such as a speech pathologist and an occupational therapist, remain in the classroom.
Special education teachers “work with a certain population, but they’re also very well trained to identify other concerns and to help us address them early, so we’re glad to keep that staff,” said Perruccio. “It’s going to be about early identification and addressing issues that don’t need to be problems” later in elementary school. “That’s our hope.
“But it is not a special education program anymore, and it certainly will not be, moving into the future,” she said. “And our teachers are going out to look at programs now so that they can keep the best of what we’re doing and then incorporate some new ideas as we transition more into this model.
“[O]ur program is not only academic and socio-emotional, it’s also a full-day program, so we’re able to give them music and art and P.E. and even some world language,” she continued. “So we can give them full exposure to what their day will be like when they become kindergartners at Goodwin School.”
Letters are now going out to parents who have enrolled their children but changes always happen over the summer—families move away or make other plans, families move to town—and interested parents are encouraged to apply, said Bai.
Those wishing for more information can call the Goodwin School registrar at 860-395-3165 or email sday@oldsaybrookschools.org. Old Saybrook’s public Early Childhood Program