New Haven Educators Register Kids For Pre-K

Schools aren’t open yet, but a big yellow school bus is traveling through New Haven this week, encouraging families to register young children for pre-kindergarten.  

"Everything I highlight, you’re gonna fill out. And as soon as you come back from across that street, you drop this off."

A school bus is parked on Columbus Avenue in New Haven’s “Hill” section.  There’s a small table set out on the sidewalk. A steady stream of families come to talk with school officials and sign up their 3 and 4 year olds for pre-kindergarten.  

Val Morrison registered her grandson for Head Start. "I want him to be around other children so he can learn how to share and interact and not just always be home with us, you know what I mean? ' What do you hope that he will gain out of going to preschool?'  Motor skills, language skills, because his language skills is not too good. And just growing up to be a good little kid"

New Haven’s pre-k programs serve about 1600 children.  There were about 150 open seats as of Monday. 

Early Childhood Supervisor Tina Mannarino, says many parents are unaware of the pre-k opportunities. And she says that’s unfortunate because often kids in New Haven start kindergarten, unprepared."....in terms of the kinds of behaviors, listening skills, following directions and the reason is that probably that they didn’t have that early learning experience."

And when students enter kindergarten behind their peers, they often stay behind.. So New Haven’s big yellow school bus will make the rounds this week, urging families to climb on board and get their kids’ education off to a smart start.  

For WNPR, I'm Diane Orson.