DELTA, OH (WTOL) - A local school district is taking a unique approach to preparing their students for success in school.
Beginning next year, the Pike-Delta-York Local School District will institute a two-year kindergarten program to ensure those students are ready to move into elementary grades and not struggle in future classes.
The program will review incoming Kindergartners at their entrance assessment and gauge whether the students are ready to participate in the standard curriculum.
If not, the teacher will meet with parents to decide if the student will be in the two-year or one-year kindergarten course.
"A lot of kids don't have any preschool experience at all. And so when they come to us, they're not sure how to line up or how to sit in a chair or listen to a story, any of that," said Jill Anderson, Kindergarten teacher at P-D-Y Local.
The idea is to make sure the student has a solid education foundation at an early age, which hopefully will lower the number of potential students being held back in later grades.
"For many students, it takes numerous years for them to catch up. Our hope and plan is to provide those intervention years early," said P-D-Y Superintendent Ted Haselman.
For students selected for the two-year program, the first year will be a slower paced, hands on play based curriculum.
Then the students will be incorporated into the standard Kindergarten course in year two.
"There's a lot of academic standards that are necessary to be met by the end of kindergarten in order to be ready for first grade. And if you don't have that basic foundation, you're not going to be successful in the future." said Anderson.
