Children enrolled at the Taylor Early Childhood Center in Herculaneum will receive free pre-kindergarten education this school year, thanks to a grant from the state of Missouri.
The Dunklin R-5 School District announced on Aug. 7 that it would receive the 2024-25 Missouri Quality Pre-Kindergarten grant from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education through the department’s Office of Childhood.
According to DESE’s website, the Office of Childhood was created in 2021 to consolidate nearly all the state’s early childhood programs, adding that the transition to one office allows early childhood work across state government to become more streamlined and effective.
The money for the grant comes from the almost $82 million in funding for pre-kindergarten grants that the Missouri Legislature passed in 2023.
The Taylor Early Childhood Center was the only Jefferson County early childhood program in Jefferson County to receive the grant.
The tuition coverage, which is $125 per child per week, does not apply to Dunklin Daycare, a day care that opened in 2022 and serves Dunklin district employees’ children.
Charissa Kappler, director of early learning at the Taylor Early Childhood Center, said the new grant has been approved for one year, but she believes the grant will be available in subsequent years.
“This is a one-year grant, but it’s probably going to be cycled through every year because they’re trying to get more and more kids to preschool,” Kappler said. “The state opened up this money because they’re really trying to help parents afford a good quality preschool. The main goal is to close the gap so everybody starts kindergarten ready to go.”
Kappler said the district is happy to offer parents some financial relief.
“We’re really excited about what this is going to do for our families,” Kappler said. “Everything’s so much more expensive now, so this is just an added expense that they don’t have to worry about and their child is getting quality preschool.”
Kappler said attendance at preschool is very beneficial for children because it gets them used to school routines, such as standing in line, walking in the hallway and sitting down for lunch.
“When they get to kindergarten, they know their basic concepts and they’re ready to learn. We see a significant difference in our kiddos who don’t have preschool experience, even on the first day of kindergarten. They’re much more ready just to take off and start learning,” Kappler said.
Other grants
Kappler said the Taylor Early Childhood Center also has received a Preschool Start-up Grant through DESE that allocated $100,000 to add two new classrooms, which will allow the day care to accept an additional 30 students.
She said the grant also may be used to help pay for classroom furniture, supplies, equipment, instructional materials, books and staff training and salaries.
According to DESE’s website, the funding for the Preschool Start-Up Grant was made possible through the American Rescue Plan Supplemental Discretionary (ARPA-D) relief funds.
Kappler said the extra classroom space is much needed at the childhood center, which started in 2008 with just 33 students but has now ballooned to approximately 175 students and has a wait-list of more than 100 children, down from a wait-list of more than 200.
She said the district has tried to use all the space available at the center for instruction to reduce the wait-list.
“We took our cafeteria and turned it into a classroom to accommodate more kids. We just turned our teachers’ lounge into a classroom. We have utilized every square inch of our building to get in as many children as we possibly can without sacrificing any of the quality.”
Kappler said the average classroom has between 12 and 14 students and is led by a teacher and a teacher’s aide.
“I could put 20 kids in the classroom, but that’s not OK when they’re this age,” she said. “I could technically cram them in, but that would compromise the quality.”
Kappler said the center qualified for the grants more easily than some other programs in Missouri because Jefferson County is considered a child care desert. Counties declared child care deserts are prioritized for grant funding.
Kappler said that during the 2023-24 school year, any student in the year before kindergarten who qualified for free and reduced lunch was able to attend tuition-free. In the spring, eligibility was opened up to 3- and 4-year-olds as well.
Kappler said she’s thrilled the free tuition will allow more children to attend the childhood center.
“I know it’s going to open up tons of opportunities for our kiddos and our parents,” she said.
Kappler said the center also received $28,000 in classroom materials from Conscious Discipline to encourage social and emotional learning.
She said the center has received many awards over the past few years, including the 2019 and 2021 Early Childhood Education Program of the Year from the Missouri School Board Association. Kappler said the award is based on quality of care, training for teachers and innovation.
Kappler said the center also won the Promising Practice Awards from the national Character Education Partnership in 2021, 2022 and 2024.