New Kindergarten law will require more funding for Conn. preschools

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in 2020 Connecticut was one of the few states in the nation that allowed 4-yearolds to enter kindergarten — but only if their fifth birthday came before Jan. 1. Most states required children entering kindergarten to be 5 by Aug. 31 or Sept. 1, thereby making it impossible for 4-year-olds to begin public school. A few allowed local districts to determine the starting age for entering school.

Last year, the Connecticut state legislature passed a law requiring children entering kindergarten, beginning with the 2024-25 school year, to have reached age of 5 by Sept. 1. This meant the families of 4year-olds (with birthdays between Sept. 1 and Jan. 1) would have to wait another year before starting kindergarten. With the average cost of child care in the state roughly $13,000 a year, the new law will create a financial burden for many Connecticut families.

Fortunately, the governor and members of the state legislature have recognized the need to expand the state’s preschool program and are currently working on legislation that will smooth the transition to the new kindergartenage requirement. Also, local districts are developing waiver systems that would allow 4-yearolds, who qualify, to enter kindergarten. It’s not clear if these waiver programs will be based on financial need or kindergarten readiness.

Much of the discussion around the new law has focused on the financial burden of having to pay for an additional year of preschool. But what has received less attention are the issues that prompted states across the country to require children to be five upon entering kindergarten: Education these days, even at the elementary level, is intense, and many 4-yearolds fall behind early on. Moreover, allowing 4year-olds to enter kindergarten means they will be 7 years old when they enter third grade and are confronted with the pressure that comes with standardized testing.

In 1987, I became a third-grade teacher at PS 132 in northern Manhattan, where I ended up teaching for 25 years. New York, then and now, allows 4-year-olds to begin school, which meant I had 7-year-olds in my class. Early on, I noticed that a disproportionate number of my students who were receiving remedial and counseling services were 7 years old. Over the years, I checked the ages of my students who were targeted for various types of intervention.

But I will never forget the blank looks I received from 7-year-olds when I tried to explain the importance of preparing for a state test that was months away.

And the pattern held; 7-year-olds were more likely to need extra help.

In the late 1980s, New York City public schools were under intense pressure to raise scores on standardized tests. So-called test prep was not only boring and intense, it also extended across much of the school year. I knew teachers who regularly assigned “reading passages” for homework that resembled the “passages” on the Degrees of Reading Power (DRP) standardized test that all New York state students took in the early spring. Students were even assigned so-called test preparation packets for homework during vacations.

Having a third-grade class with 7-, 8-, and nine-year-olds (some students started school a year late or were held over) was not easy. But I will never forget the blank looks I received from 7-year-olds when I tried to explain the importance of preparing for a state test that was months away. Moreover, the DRP could be gamed; that is, students could be taught specific strategies that would raise their scores. Try explaining that to a 7year-old.

It is important to note that most of my students during the 25 years I taught at PS132 did not attend preschool. This raises a critical equity issue: They were being asked to perform on a standardized test after being in school for four years, whereas children who were fortunate enough to attend preschool for three years were taking that very same test after seven years of formal education.

This brings us back to the need to increase funding for preschool in Connecticut. According to the National Institute of Early Education Research, in 2022 only 18 percent of 4-year-olds in the state had access to state-funded preschool. That made our state 32nd in the nation when it comes to funding preschool and early childhood education. In contrast, Florida was No. 1 with 68 percent of its 4year-olds attending state-funded preschools.

We can do better.