Anne Arundel County Public Schools to drop Pre-K programs for four year old students
Beginning in the 2025-2026 school year, Anne Arundel County Public Schools will no longer offer prekindergarten programs for 3-year-olds,
AACPS said
Thursday.
The shift comes due to the adoption of a
new policy
by the Maryland State Board of Education and the Blueprint for Maryland's Future's Accountability and Implementation Board.
"Specifically, we encourage public school systems to focus on delivering prekindergarten to Tier I four-year-olds, while private providers are encouraged to focus on serving Tier I three-year-olds and Tier II and Tier III four-year-olds," the policy states.
AACPS will prioritize 4-year-old students in "Tier I." This includes children from low-income families, homeless children, some multilingual learners, and some students with special education plans. The school system wants to place students in schools closer to their homes, so they don't have to travel as far.
"This change will allow us to better focus instruction and services to students who need it most and to do so at schools that are closer to the homes of those students," AACPS Superintendent of Schools Dr. Mark Bedell said. "We must, by law, accommodate all 4-year-old Tier I students, but some of those students have had to travel great distances in prior years, and we are hoping to minimize if not eliminate that in the next school year."
Registration for next year's Pre-K programs starts on May 6, 2025.
Programs for 3-year-olds will still exist, but they'll be offered by private schools, childcare centers, Head Start, and family childcare homes instead of public schools.
Positions allocated to 3-year-old programs in the current school year will be converted to 4-year-old programs in the 2025-2026 school year, according to AACPS.
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