PreK Access: One School District's Work to Improve and Increase Access for Local Families

Research has clearly shown over time that there are significant social, emotional, and academic benefits to young children who attend quality Pre-Kindergarten programs. The administration at the Grove City Area School District approached our research team to investigate the reasons why less than 50% of children who enter Kindergarten in the district have not attended a PreK program. Our goals for this study were to:Assess PreK options for the Grove City community, Identify the families who have not enrolled their children in PreK and determine the barriers to PreK access, and Collaborate with community partners to propose and enact potential solutions to PreK access. An anonymous survey using Qualtrics was sent to every family in the district with children currently in kindergarten through second grade. Currently, the survey is still active and there have been 74 responses as of February 14, 2022. Results thus far have shown that 80% of the children did attend PreK and 20% did not. As suspected, responses to the survey indicate the biggest barrier to PreK access was that the programs in the community simply didn't have openings. Other identified challenges to access include lack of quality programs in the community, cost, and lack of transportation. Results support an investigation into potential new programs within the Grove City School District or expansion of existing quality programming.