Media
Learning to share the PIECES
Education, child-care pros work together on universal preschool
Sunday January 19, 2003
By Dawn Miller
STAFF WRITER
©
Copyright 2003 Sunday Gazette-Mail
About 20 curious adults crowded into Betsy Knittle’s Head Start classroom at Sissonville Elementary School one morning, the better to see how she does her job.
Knittle teaches some students through Head Start, a federal program that offers preschool to children from low-income families.
In the same classroom, she teaches preschoolers with special needs. Their schooling is funded by the state Department of Education. Last year, she also enrolled children whose expenses were covered with child-care funds.
If the state is going to offer optional preschool to every 4-year-old, as state law requires, more communities will have to figure out how to serve children in the same classroom, no matter which agency is paying the bills, planners say.
In fact, the state law that requires preschool for all 4-year-olds also requires that West Virginia’s Department of Education and Department of Health and Human Resources work together and with private child-care centers and Head Start classes.
That’s why Knittle’s visitors wanted to see how she does it.
The Education Department runs kindergartens and some preschool classrooms. The DHHR regulates some private child-care centers and offers child-care subsidies to working poor parents. The federal government contracts school systems or nonprofit groups to run Head Start classrooms.
But the various groups have not always interacted with each other, say the observers in Knittle’s classroom. They represent the two departments, parents, business and others on an advisory group called PIECES — Partners Implementing the Early Care and Education System.
They wanted to know if Knittle was certified by Education to teach preschoolers without special needs.
No, Knittle said, gesturing with the big red plastic spoon that she happened to be holding when the group arrived. Around her, children painted, glued, splashed, poured, rocked and talked.
She has a bachelor’s degree in child and family studies from Penn State University and a master’s degree in preschool handicap education from Marshall University.
Despite her qualifications, the state Education Department would not certify her to teach regular preschoolers unless she took more education classes, she said.
“We changed that,” piped up Cathy Jones, a member of the advisory group and coordinator of early childhood programs for the Education Department.
“Really?” Knittle asked, sounding pleasantly surprised. “No one told us.”
The state Board of Education made the change the evening before at its Jan. 9 meeting. That change was based on recommendations of the advisory group, which has been trying to get the two departments to work together.
“What’s your biggest challenge?” asked Fred Boothe, commissioner of the DHHR’s Bureau for Children and Families.
“Right now, our biggest challenge is keeping up with paperwork,” Knittle said.
She must follow Head Start rules, which stress learning through play. But she also follows child-development goals set up for other children in her classroom.
Last year, when Knittle enrolled children covered with day-care money, she also had to meet state child-care regulations.
“None of that has been integrated very well,” she said.
Knittle suggested:
A new system should have realistic provisions for children with special needs. Children with special needs enter her classroom at any time throughout the year whenever they turn 3 years old. In the past, she has not always been able to get an aide when the number of children or the amount of attention they required increased mid-year.
Teachers need time to plan and prepare for their classes, which she says she does not have. Head Start rules require that classes be at least 3 1/2 hours long. The only way to offer two classes that long and still fit within the regular school day (and therefore take advantage of the public school buses) is to offer classes back-to-back.
That means teachers and aides get no break, no time for a quiet lunch and no time to clean and reset their room for the second class.
Last week, the Legislature’s House Education Committee recommended a bill that would prevent county school boards from enrolling 4-year-olds in state-funded pre-kindergarten classes unless specifically authorized by the Legislature.
Counties who enroll more 4-year-olds than they had on Oct. 15, 2002, would have to pay for their education with federal, local or private money.
To contact staff writer Dawn Miller, use e-mail or call 348-5117.