Kindergarten readiness has been the topic of numerous discussions around Kentucky for the past several years. Serving on both Family Resource councils and where I work heavily with our school system I was apart of lots of conversations where the question was asked "What are we going to do to correct the issue of our children not being ready to attend Kindergarten?"

Wolfe County 4-H and Extension joined the Wolfe County Family Resource Center, Red River Valley Family Resource Center and Wolfe County Board of Education to collaborate together to develop a program that would address the low Kindergarten readiness scores. Not only to address the scores but to make sure our kids are ready to attend school. Statistics show that those kids who are not ready for kindergarten fall behind from the beginning and most never catch up. These kids also are less likely to graduate from high school. In a meeting, it was also shared with us that Kindergarten readiness scores are also what they look at when they are deciding where to place jails and prisons in the future. 

In our first year we held 4 sessions during the month of July. We had the incoming kids one day a week for 2 hours a day. We worked with skills such as writing, math, the alphabet, shapes and colors. We worked to ensure that kids would know the basic information needed before they start Kindergarten. When the students entered school in the fall and were given the Brigance test. That year the overall test scores increased by 3%. 

While we knew that the improvement was good and that we were making an impact, we knew we needed to do more. The planning committee met to adjust our tactics. We elected to have 10 total sessions. The first 6 sessions would begin in January and would occur the last Tuesday night of each month. For these sessions we would have parents attend as well. We took the kids to the project room to work on skills and the parents had special presentations for various issues in the large meeting room. The parents also learned ways to help get their kids ready at home. Through money from a grant we received from United4Kids we were able to purchase several different types of materials to help the parents teach their kids at home. The last 4 sessions we had the kids only during the month of July. They met 1 day a week for 4 hours a day. This allowed more time for educating the kids. We measured progress the same way we had before. We saw a 7.5% increase in kids who were Kindergarten ready. 

For this current year we have kept basically the same format only now we have 5 parent & child sessions and 5 student only sessions. These students will be tested in August to determine the measure of the program. To date since beginning the program we have saw an increase in Kindergarten readiness by 10.5% for Wolfe County. Only 4 out of 96 kids who participated in the program throughout the 3 years of implementation, have been deemed NOT ready for Kindergarten. So far 96% of our participating incoming Kindergartners are deemed Kindergarten ready by the Brigance test. We look forward to seeing more results in the fall and seeing our kids improve to reach their full potential.