Battle Ground Public Schools is offering state-funded, full-day kindergarten at all its primary schools and Maple Grove K-8 school beginning with the 2016-17 school year, one year ahead of the state’s requirement for schools to offer full-day programs. The district will no longer offer half-day kindergarten programs.
Children who will be 5 years old before Sept. 1 are eligible to enter kindergarten in the fall. Parents can learn which school their child will attend by referring to the district’s online boundary map at www.battlegroundps.org or by calling the district boundaries office at 360-885-6577.
Parents and guardians can enroll their children online at http://www.battlegroundps.org/parents-and-students/k12-enrollment.
Families who enroll students online can attach scans of the required documentation to the online application. This includes verification of the child’s birth date — such as a birth certificate — and immunization records. Families who cannot scan the required documents must bring copies of the documents to their child’s school, though schools are closed until April 11 for spring break.
Parents can ask questions and bring required documents to school offices during kindergarten roundup week, 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. April 18 through 22.
To accommodate full-day kindergarten — which essentially doubles its kindergarten classrooms and staff — Battle Ground will construct modular buildings at two campuses this summer, and reconfigure existing space at other schools to add the required classrooms. The district’s other grades are also growing due to robust housing construction.
State-funded all-day kindergarten is part of the state’s constitutionally protected definition of basic education. Legislation passed in 2009 requires full implementation of state-funded all-day kindergarten for all students in Washington by the 2017-18 school year. Maple Grove K-8 began offering the state-funded, full-day program in the current 2015-16 school year. Initially, funding was not attached to implementing kindergarten, and later it was offered to schools with the highest poverty rates.
Battle Ground is one of only two Clark County school districts not yet offering full-day kindergarten to all kindergarten students this school year. Last September, Ridgefield School District began offering full-day kindergarten at Union Ridge Elementary for students who qualified for free and reduced-price lunches. Beginning next school year, Ridgefield will offer full-day kindergarten to all students, said Superintendent Nathan McCann.
