HANCOCK COUNTY – As Hancock County students eased into the groove of going back to school over the past 10 days, some of the littlest students in the county are getting acclimated to school for the very first time.
Preschools throughout the county have welcomed 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds into the classroom, where the desks are as tiny as the students sitting at them.
Classes are at or near capacity at the preschool programs offered by the Greenfield-Central, New Palestine and Mt. Vernon school systems, which boast kid-friendly names that match each district’s mascot — Cougar Cubs, Little Dragons and Mini Marauders.
While those preschools are open to all students, Eastern Hancock’s preschool is devoted to students with disabilities.
The preschool at Outlook Christian Church in McCordsville was a busy place this week, as pint-sized pupils enjoyed both learning and leisure time.
With enrollment just over half capacity, the school is enrolling new students on an ongoing basis.
Megan Sweeney, administrative assistant for the program, said enrollment has been down ever since the start of the COVID pandemic in 2020.
According to a U.S. Census Bureau report, the percentage of 3-to-6-year-olds enrolled in preschool in the United States dropped by 9.3 percentage points from 2019 to 2021.
The drop in preschool enrollment was felt across the nation, although Indiana reportedly experienced the smallest decline at 3.6 percent.
Whether they have waiting lists or not, local preschools are on a collective mission to prepare their young students for future success.
“Early education is the key to future learning,” said Katie Arnold, director of the preschool at Bradley United Methodist Church in Greenfield.
“You have to learn in preschool what we used to learn in kindergarten, but now we need to know it before we get to kindergarten,” she said.
Megan Sweeney, administrative assistant for the preschool at McCordsville’s Outlook Christian Church, said most students graduate from their program with the ability to read at least three-letter words.
Just as important, she said, preschool students learn how to conduct themselves at school.
“Preschool is important because it gives them the skills they need when they go off to kindergarten,” said Sweeney, whose own children attended the Outlook preschool.
“A lot of kids need to learn how to sit at a desk or walk in a line because it’s all new to them, but when they go to kindergarten most of those (preschool) kids already know those things. We have heard from a lot of (kindergarten) teachers that they can tell what students have come from Outlook (preschool) because they’re ready to go. They know the drill,” she said.
Arnold, the director at Bradley UMC’s preschool, said preschool can also help identify challenges in students who may struggle with speech, learning or motor skills.
“If we get them before kindergarten we can get some early interventions in place before they head to kindergarten,” she said.
Dawn Sonsini, director of preschool and early learning for the Greenfield-Central schools, said both of the school district’s preschool sites are at capacity.
Both sites – Cougar Cubs Cougar Cubs East at J.B. Stephens Elementary School and Cougar Cubs West at The Academy on Broadway Street — now have wait lists.
Sonsini added an eighth classroom this year, and said she could potentially add at least one or two more if she had the resources.
She attributes the full roster as a sign of the time in the greater Greenfield area, which is experiencing record growth.
“It’s something our district is monitoring closely,” she said.
While the Cougar Cubs program is limited to 3- and 4-year-olds, Sonsini said some parents join the waiting list when their children are even younger in hopes of having them start when they turn 3.
“We have criteria we follow making sure we serve those students who are in our district first,” said Sonsini, who also prioritizes students who will be starting kindergarten the following year.
At the Bradley UMC preschool, Arnold marked her classroom at capacity when another student enrolled in preschool Wednesday afternoon, bringing the total in class to 16.
“I think we’d need to have about 10 more students to open up a new room, and we would possibly do that if we could acquire more teachers,” she said.
While many preschools like Bradley’s operate on a half-day schedule, Outlook’s program allows children to stay onsite anywhere between 6:30 a.m. and 6 p.m.
Sweeney said the preschool offers ongoing learning opportunities throughout the day. The school follows a bible-based curriculum called abeka, which incorporates learning and fun activities.
The origins of preschool in the U.S. can be traced back to 1965 when President Lyndon B. Johnson created the country’s first publicly funded preschool program – Head Start – to provide half-day preschool for low-income families.
What started as a summer pilot program offering nutrition and support services, with an education component, grew into the robust preschool system in the U.S. today.
According to k12academics.com, only 10 percent of the nation’s 3- and 4-year-olds were enrolled in a classroom setting in the 1960s.
When Head Start funding dried up in the 1980s, a handful of states started their own version of the program.
By 2005, 69% of 4-year-olds in the country participated in some type of state preschool program.
Federal funding for preschool for low-income families is still available through the On My Way Pre-K program, which awards vouchers for 4-year-olds to attend a high-quality pre-K program the year before they start kindergarten.
For more information, visit IN.gov/fssa.
