JCPS announces start date for Early Childhood Education with new transportation plan
Jefferson County Public Schools has announced when its Early Childhood Education program will begin this year.
JCPS will open ECE locations starting on Monday, Sept. 25.
"Oh my god, I'm so relieved. I cannot tell you, I'm so relieved," said Stephanie Bright, the mother of a three-year-old son who attends JCPS Early Childhood Education Classes.
This comes after JCPS delayed the start of the program twice due to busing issues the district experienced at the beginning of the school year.
The daily instructional time for ECE locations will be from 10:30 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. But the locations will be open before and after the instructional time period for enrichment time, JCPS officials said.
The new start date will also come with changes to transportation.
During the first week of the program's return, JCPS will only be providing transportation to special needs students as related to their Individual Education Program. Transportation for all special needs early childhood program students will begin on Oct. 9.
JCPS said they will notify parents once estimated pick-up and drop-off times are determined.
The district will not be offering transportation to students who are not considered special needs at this time.
JCPS officials said this is the only way to make the transportation successful for the return of the programs.
Once transportation returns, JCPS will only be offering buses during the 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. timeframe.
To help with transportation, JCPS is encouraging any parent who can drop off or pick up their children to do so. Officials also said that students can be dropped off by parents and taken home by bus or brought to ECE by bus and picked up by parents.
Both the Dawson Orman Educational Center and DuValle Education Center will start at 9:40 a.m. and dismiss at 4:20 p.m.
JCPS is also creating a plan to provide monetary stipends to parents who can transport their children to and from ECE each day. Details about this will be released at a later time.
"We believe over the course of nine months, we'll spend in the neighborhood of one million dollars to support those families depending on how many take advantage of it [the stipend]. We are looking anywhere between five and seven dollars a day which would be about a hundred dollars a month," said Polio.