All-Day Kindergarten Plan Allows Opt-Out

COLUMBUS, Ohio—Gov. Ted Strickland’s plans to require universal all-day kindergarten in Ohio aren’t quite universal, according to the fine print in his two-year budget plan.

In January, Strickland used clear language to describe his plans to require universal all-day kindergarten, an increasingly popular policy around the country that most studies show has an educational benefit. It’s currently offered in roughly three-quarters of Ohio’s 613 school districts.

Strickland’s budget plan contains two major exceptions to the all-day requirement.

“We will end the outdated practice of giving our most impressionable students only a half day of learning,“ Strickland said in his State of the State address on Jan. 28. “Ohio will now require universal all-day kindergarten.“

Strickland’s two-year budget plan, now in the hands of state lawmakers, isn’t as resolute.

It allows local school boards to apply for a waiver to the superintendent of public instruction to get out of the requirement, which would become effective in July 2010. The waiver would only last for a year, but could be renewed, said Strickland spokeswoman Amanda Wurst.

The budget plan doesn’t specify what the district has to demonstrate to get the waiver, but says the superintendent may consider space constraints or other arrangements a district may have - such as offering the program through a local day-care provider.

If a district offers it, parents may choose whether to send their children to full-day kindergarten or half-day kindergarten, according to the budget plan. Parents also may choose to forgo kindergarten altogether. The plan does not change the state’s compulsory school attendance law, which begins at age six, or first grade.

“Obviously the governor hopes that all Ohio parents choose all-day kindergarten,“ Wurst said.

Wurst said the governor’s plan gives districts flexibility in meeting the requirement, but will hold them accountable in the long run.

“What the governor is doing for the first time in Ohio is providing the option of all-day kindergarten to all Ohio parents,“ Wurst said.

Offering all-day kindergarten is mandatory for districts that get poverty-based assistance from the state.

Some districts without all-day kindergarten have said it would be difficult to get their facilities ready to handle the new load of students should Strickland’s plan be enacted.

Gary Smiga, the schools superintendent in Centerville near Dayton, said recently his district would need 15 additional classrooms and 15 more teachers.

Wurst said the governor’s school funding plan would treat kindergarten students as a full student, instead of one-half of a student as it does in the current funding model.

“We support it (the governor’s plan) but you’ve got to look at the logistics and the funding,“ said Scott Ebright, spokesman for the Ohio School Boards Association. “In districts that have more than one elementary building, are they going to have to move students in upper grades to a new building?“

Nationally, about 60 percent of students attend all-day kindergarten, according to the Education Commission of the States. Nine states require that districts offer full-day kindergarten. Fourteen states require that students attend kindergarten, and two of those - Louisiana and West Virginia - require students to attend full-day kindergarten.

In 2007, then Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann issued an opinion that school districts couldn’t charge parents for all-day kindergarten. But the Legislature passed a bill after the opinion was issued to enable them to continue charging parents, which many of the districts with the program do using a sliding scale based on income.

The governor’s budget plan would end districts’ ability to charge parents, and provide more state funding to make up for it.

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