~ At the earliest, something could be in place in late 2007.

The Cape Girardeau School District may offer schooling to 3- and 4-year-olds within two years.

The district's at-risk committee says it could benefit all students, but particularly at-risk students. Attendance would be voluntary, school officials said.

A prekindergarten program could help teachers identify at an earlier age children who have behavioral problems, family issues or other factors that could put them at risk academically as they advance through the grades, school officials said.

Deena Ring, director of special services for the district, said the school system may apply for a federal grant to initially fund a pre-K program.

But superintendent Dr. David Scala said that won't happen immediately. He said the district plans to further study the idea next school year. At the earliest, the district could have a program in place for the 2007-2008 school year, Scala said.

"It is certainly something we want to look at," he said.

But before applying for any grant, Scala said, school officials must look at whether the district could absorb the expense once the grant runs out. "We certainly would have to make sure that we could sustain the program," he said.

The district needs to educate residents about the role of prekindergarten in education, Scala said.

If the district establishes such a program, it likely would be offered initially at a single elementary school but would serve children districtwide, Ring said.

The district's at-risk committee -- one of five committees working to draft a new comprehensive plan for improvements to the school system -- sees a preschool program as just one step toward helping students succeed in school.

"I don't think we are trying to compete with day cares," said Mary Rutherford, a special-education teacher at Cape Girardeau Central High School.

"This isn't baby-sitting," she said. "This has an educational component."

She said some parents can't afford to send their children to private preschools.

Prekindergarten programs can teach children social skills -- how to play with others, how to get along on the playground, how to take one's turn and how to listen.

Rutherford said students in a pre-K program might attend school only half a day. "Kids wear out," she said. Attention spans are short. "You have to change activities every 10 minutes when they are 3."

More than 200 school districts in Missouri offer some type of preschool program. Many of them rely on federal funding because the state offers only limited funding, said state and local educators.

"Some districts may get some startup money, but there is no regular operational money from the state," said Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education spokesman Jim Morris.

In addition to federal grants, school districts have relied on local tax money and even fees charged parents to help pay the cost, he said.

Ring said state and nationals statistics can be misleading. Special-education classes serving young children often get counted as part of prekindergarten programs, she said.

During the 2004-2005 school year, 38 states including Missouri offered some type of state-funded prekindergarten. Those programs combined served more than 800,000 children according to the National Institute for Early Education Research in New Jersey.

Pre-K advocacy groups say more and more school districts are teaching 3- and 4-year-olds.

Three states -- Oklahoma, Georgia and most recently Florida -- offer pre-K to every 4-year-old.

Florida's program opened last fall, the result of a ballot initiative. With an initial appropriation of $387 million, the program is serving 80,000 children, according to Pre-K Now, a Washington-based advocacy group.

Twenty-three states allow school districts to work with private and faith-based preschools, the advocacy group said.

Decades of research show that children who attend pre-kindergarten programs are better prepared for school and life, said Libby Doggett, Pre-K Now executive director.

They can better follow directions when they get to kindergarten, she said. "They know how a classroom works. They know how to interact with other children."

Students who attended prekindergarten programs also have stronger reading and math skills, Doggett said.

Children, she said, learn a lot at an early age. Said Doggett, "We have just underestimated children for too long."

mbliss@semissourian.com

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