Kent Schools to Discuss All-Day Kindergarten Waiver

The Board of Education will decide Tuesday if they want to ask the state for a waiver that would exempt the district from having to provide an all-day kindergarten curriculum for the next two years.

Kent City Schools Superintendent Joseph Giancola said the Ohio Department of Education made the two-year waivers available to the state's school districts in December.

“Right now we’re asking (the board) for the waiver of that requirement,” Giancola said.

Giancola said district administrators anticipate the new makeup in the Ohio general assembly will repeal the all-day kindergarten requirement this year to help districts save costs.

“We’re counting on that, but in the meantime we will apply for that waiver,” he said.

Other area districts have ask the state for the waiver,

Kent's board will meet Tuesday at 7 p.m. in to discuss and vote on the issue.

Kent has been offering a half-day program for kindergarten students in its district. If the waiver is granted, the district will continue the half-day program for the next two years.

"We are waiting to see if House Bill 30 passes in the Ohio legislature, which would drop the full-day requirement and would allow school districts to offer a full-day tuition-based kindergarten program," Giancola said. "As the current (state) biennium budget law mandates, tuition-based kindergarten would not be an option for 2011-12 unless the new legislature and governor reverse that decision with a new law."