Pre-K for Wake 3-year-olds to reopen for applications after high demand in first year

The 3-year-olds in Wake County’s newest preschool program are getting a head start on kindergarten that county leaders say will pay big dividends for their future education success.

The Wake ThreeSchool program started in August as part of an effort to expand access to Pre-K programs to underserved 3-year-old children. It’s a program that county leaders hope will grow in time to provide even more families with access to free, high-quality early education programs.

“The earlier we get children in structured early learning environments, the better their outcomes are.” Gayle Headen, executive director of Wake County Smart Start, said in an interview.

Wake County Smart Start administers the ThreeSchool program for Wake County.

Amenys Taveras says her daughter, Ailani, is upset if she can’t come to ThreeSchool.

“She likes coming to school,” Taveras said in an interview. “She likes to learn. She loves her teacher. She asks to come to school.”

High demand for seats

The program emerged after Wake County had met its goal in 2021 of having 85% of income-eligible 4-year-olds enrolled in Pre-K programs. Income eligibility is defined as being within 200% of the poverty line.

Instead of just celebrating reaching the 85% goal, Headen said Wake County Commissioner Matt Calabria asked her what should be the next priority to tackle in Pre-K education. Calabria was chairman of the Board of Commissioners at that time.

Headen said commissioners quickly signed on to addressing the needs of children who are too old for state-funded infant/toddler services and too young for N.C. Pre-K, which starts at age 4. Headen said that most of Wake County’s 3,000 income-eligible 3-year-olds are not in a Pre-K program.

The program was announced in April 2021, with Wake County Smart Start getting a planning year before taking in children this August. ThreeSchool is still in the pilot program stage so it’s serving only 100 children this school year and next school year.

But Headen said that they still drew more than 850 applications this year. Wake County Smart Start will begin accepting applications in January from families who want to attend ThreeSchool next school year.

Preparing kids for kindergarten

ThreeSchool is being offered at eight private child-care centers that partnered with Wake County Smart Start. Taveras’ daughter attends the class at A Safe Place Childcare in Southeast Raleigh.

“She’s starting to get to know her colors,” Taveras said. “She knows when she comes in to wash her hands for as long as she needs to. I’ve just seen a lot of improvement ever since she started here. This program is amazing.”

Headen said that providing two years of pre-K instead of just one will help not only those children but also their classmates and teacher when they enter kindergarten.

“That child comes to the classroom knowing how to self regulate, knowing how to wait their turn, knowing how to help others and show empathy,” Headen said. “The teacher can spend less time on teaching those skills and then can focus more on the other skills that the teacher would otherwise want to teach to the kindergarten classroom.”

Will program grow?

It’s uncertain how much ThreeSchool will grow since it has no state funding. Wake ThreeSchool is totally funded by the county.

Wake County commissioners provided $2 million this year for ThreeSchool. But it would take more money to fund the growth plan that Wake County Smart Start has developed that could allow it to serve 600 ThreeSchool students a year.

“There are additional funding considerations about the extent to which we could expand a 3-year-old program funded only by the county,” Headen said.

Instead of 3-year-olds, the state primarily funds the N.C. Pre-K program, which provides services to 4-year-olds.

In November, the Democratic majority on the N.C. Supreme Court ordered the state to fund the Leandro plan, which includes paying for expanded statewide access in the N.C. Pre-K program. Supporters of the Leandro plan hope the new Republican majority on the state Supreme Court won’t overturn the decision.

“It took quite awhile to get the general public to understand the value of early education and to get them on board to fund 4-year-olds,” Headen said.