Press Releases
05/08/2015
Gov. Malloy: Full-Day Kindergarten Will Move Our State into the Future
(HARTFORD, CT) - Governor Dannel P. Malloy and Commissioner of Education Dianna R. Wentzell today visited classrooms in Bristol and Southington, highlighting the importance and benefits of full-day kindergarten for Connecticut's five-year-old learners, approximately 2,000 of whom do not have access to full day instruction - or roughly 5.5 percent.
"By depriving thousands of children of full-day kindergarten, we are going backwards. It's time we act now to make full-day kindergarten universal in Connecticut so that we can make students' lives brighter tomorrow," Governor Malloy said. "This is a commonsense issue, and one that we should take action on now. It will yield innumerable benefits in the long-run. It's simply counterintuitive for some children to attend full-day pre-K, yet have others be denied full-day kindergarten. Extended learning time works - and I'm a believer in doing what works. Within two years, every kindergartener should have access to a full-day of learning."
Full-day kindergarten serves as an important bridge between pre-kindergarten programs and more structured learning in Grade 1 classrooms. Often, students learn through play in kindergarten. In addition to academic learning, teachers focus on developing students' social and emotional skills.
"Investments into early learning yield invaluable returns for students, families and communities," Education Commissioner Wentzell said. "Full-day kindergarten is essential to addressing the preparation gap and provides teachers more time to identify and address students' potential learning challenges. In many ways, full-day kindergarten is not something we can afford to delay."
Earlier this year, Governor Malloy proposed a bill requiring all school districts to offer full-day kindergarten, which is defined as least 900 hours during the school year, by the 2017-18 academic year.
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