LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. –
Eighteen 4-year-old military family members started the school year strong at the Russ Child Development Center here Sept. 4, as part of a statewide, one-year pilot program to improve access to quality preschool.
The Start Strong Initiative, launched by Governor Timothy Kaine in 2006, teams Virginia communities with private, faith-based, home-based and military providers in an effort to provide quality education experiences for 4-year olds.
At Langley, that partnership found the CDC and Hampton collaborating to provide opportunities for military children living in the city.
"This program offers another opportunity to give four-year-olds more early learning experience," said Ms. Kelly McConnell, CDC director.
That experience is important, according to Governor Kaine.
"Ninety percent of a child's brain growth is complete by age five," Governor Kaine wrote in Executive Order 7, establishing the Start Strong Council. "At present, too many children are unprepared by the time that they reach school. High quality preschool is vital to a child's success later in school and in life."
According to the state's Start Strong Initiative Web site, the program is a "significant expansion of the existing Virginia Preschool Initiative program" and will better serve the 6,500 Virginia preschoolers who lack access to quality education and are considered "at risk" due to barriers such as a lack of classroom space, lack of parent awareness and a lack of community funding.
"Educating kids is not a cookie cutter process," said Ms. Valencia Lewis, coordinator of early childhood for Hampton city schools.
The pilot program will test the implementation of the Start Strong program, focusing on the formation of public-private partnerships and the program's quality rating system, which implements standards for the various participating preschool settings.
"We have already learned a great deal by establishing unique public-private partnerships in the pilot communities, and we'll apply the lessons we have learned to the Governor's proposed expansion, which begins in the fall of 2008," according to the Web site.
Other Virginia communities participating in the pilot program include: Albemarle County, Alexandria, Alleghany County, Bath County, Chesapeake, Fairfax, Highland County, Richmond County and Virginia Beach.
The pilot sites will serve an additional 300 at-risk children during the 2007-08 academic year.
"The children are adjusting really well," said Ms. McConnell.