Indiana might phase in all-day kindergarten

INDIANAPOLIS -- Indiana should phase in optional full-day kindergarten over the next three years, starting next fall, with the state's neediest children, Gov. Mitch Daniels was expected to announced Tuesday.\nStarting in August 2007, all kindergarten-age children who are eligible for free and reduced-priced lunches -- about 33,000 statewide -- would have the opportunity to attend full-day, if the governor's plan is accepted.\nIn August 2008, all school corporations that have higher than the median number of students on the lunch program would offer the full-day option, and by 2009, all districts would have a full-day, the governor's plan proposes.\nDaniels' proposal would require a one-time grant of $25 million to schools starting the program in 2007 to pay costs from August to December until districts receive normal funding. The cost that school year would be $54 million, including the grant, according to the proposal.\nSome education officials had urged the governor to implement full-day for all students in the 2007-08 school year -- a proposal Daniels' budget agency estimated would cost about $166 million.\nClassroom space and staffing was also a concern in some areas, according to a recent survey of school districts by the Indiana Department of Education. About 82 percent of school districts said they would need more faculty for the program to work, while 53 percent said they would need more classrooms.\nBut some teachers and superintendents say schools can find a way to get space and staff to expand full-day kindergarten as long as the state provides funding.\nSuellen Reed, the state's superintendent of public instruction, has said a phase-in approach to full-day is better than nothing.\nAdvocates say more time in kindergarten helps lagging children catch up to their peers before entering first grade, while providing other youngsters individual challenges to keep them interested. Critics worry that the programs are state-funded day care.