Kindergarten goes all-day

It's quite a task to guide 55 kindergartners, with their camera-toting parents in tow, to class on the first day of school.

It's an all-out feat to shepherd 110.

But Midvale Elementary couldn't be happier to do it.

The school is the first in Jordan District to pilot an all-day kindergarten program, mainly at the request of parents. That meant pulling money from every pot they could to hire a couple of extra teachers to educate all those 5-year-olds at once, rather than in two half-day shifts.

Despite a few children wanting to extend recess time, wondering when it's time to go home, and "quite the event getting them through the lunch line," principal Karen Kezerian says, the first day of kindergarten was a hit.

The rest of the year promises to be, too — both in and outside the "fun" category.

Full-day kindergarten, popping up throughout Utah, is proving to help move ahead children who are often left behind.

"I think it makes more difference than anything else we're doing," said Mary Kay Kirkland, assistant superintendent overseeing curriculum in Box Elder School District. "I think if we can do interventions with students when they are just coming into schools, and catch those kids when they're learning to read and give them those targeted interventions . . . (it's) the only way to get kids to all be reading on grade level by third grade."

Full-day kindergarten has received statewide discussion over the years, but not much action, at least from the top down.

A full-day-kindergarten bill emerged in the 2000 Legislature, but it didn't get much of a hearing. Utah's compulsory education law does not even require children attend kindergarten. And the bill's price tag was staggering, particularly for the state giving less money per student than any other.

Half-day kindergarten costs the state a little over half what it spends on older students' education. Doubling the instruction time would cost the state $42 million, estimates State Associate Superintendent Patrick Ogden.

But research indicates the investment would be sound, particularly for disadvantaged students.