More 4-year-olds residing in the Lauderdale County School District will have access to publicly funded pre-K next fall thanks to a three-year grant from the Mississippi Department of Education.

The county school district already offers a pre-K class at its four elementary schools, averaging about 20 preschoolers in each class. With the grant, the district will be able to double pre-K enrollment by adding one additional class of up to 20 preschoolers at each campus.

“After conducting the screening and application process, we have pretty much met the needs of three of our communities,” said Karen Williams, director of curriculum and instruction for grades K-8th for the Lauderdale County School District. “Almost every child that applied in three of the communities got in (to a pre-K class).”

In the Lauderdale County School District, children must be 4 years old by Sept. 1 to qualify for pre-K. In addition, parents or guardians must commit to getting the child to and from school.

“They have to provide their own transportation because we don’t have the seat belts and can’t meet all of the safety regulations on our current school buses to transport children that age,” Williams said. “We do have some daycares that will drop off in the mornings and pick up our pre-K students because they do have those seatbelts on their vans, and that is perfectly permissible.”

In Lauderdale County, access to publicly funded pre-K has been severely limited in the past since almost all Head Start programs are located within the city.

The county school district is receiving $2.4 million over three years to help expand its preschool program. The funds are part of $15 million awarded by the Mississippi Department of Education to 11 school districts across the state to begin new State Invested Pre-K, or SIP, programs.

Back in January, the county school district received an overwhelming response in pre-K applications from interested parents when it was announced the district was expanding the program, Superintendent Dr. John-Mark Cain told school board members in a meeting earlier this year.

He said the district received 231 applications by the deadline from far more children than the district is able to accept.

West Lauderdale Elementary School, one of the two larger elementary campuses, received a great deal more in applications than spots available, so not all of the 4 year olds who applied were accepted.

Williams said the district used a screening based on an assessment of each child to narrow the list.

“We will start with those students who have the highest need as being a priority,” she said.

In addition to the pre-K classes, Northeast Elementary and Southeast Elementary each offer a federally funded special education pre-K class for children ages 3 and 4. Students from the West Lauderdale area have access to the Northeast program, and students from the Clarkdale area have access to the Southeast program.

Early childhood advocates in Mississippi have long backed publicly funded preschool programs as a way improve students’ academic achievements.

“Early childhood is the building blocks of a child’s learning,” said Cisley Barksdale, steering chair of Meridian/Lauderdale County Excel by 5.

Years ago, mothers and grandmothers kept children until they were ready to start kindergarten. But kindergarteners today are expected to know so much more by the first day of school, which is why children need to be in preschool at an early age so they are academically and emotionally ready for the rigors of kindergarten, she said.

“Their brains at that age are like little sponges. Everything we show them, they are absorbing,” Barksdale said.

Williams agreed.

“We have increased the rigors of what kindergarten students are required to do by the end of kindergarten so in order to get that up to standard, you have to address early childhood learning,” she said.

Pre-K is not just about academics but also about the child’s social environment, the learning of classroom rules and expectations and the ability to be able to interact with other students and around adults, Williams said.

“A lot of it is the social environment with them learning to understanding rules and regulations and how to act around other students and other adults,” she said. “Some of these kids live in a household without other children, so they don’t know how to handle being around other kids.”

The grant funds will allow the county school district to add a new pre-K class at each campus and hire a qualified teacher and assistant for the class, Williams said. Each of the assistants will have to be certified in early childhood education.

“MCC offers a program just for early childhood education so we are trying to partner with them to ensure some of the graduates who come out of that program are interested in some of the jobs we have to offer here. It is a great partnership,” she said.