Little Rock School District lays out early-childhood expansion plan, including summer program and universal pre-K goal

Little Rock School District staff told the board on April 10 that work is under way to expand early‑childhood services across the city, including an eight‑week summer pre‑K program this year, new behavioral supports and a long‑range ‘‘big‑hairy‑audacious’’ goal of offering universal pre‑K3 and pre‑K4 slots for incoming kindergarten cohorts.

The presentation, delivered by early‑childhood staff and task‑force co‑chairs, summarized last year’s task‑force work, results from parent and educator surveys, and steps taken so far. Staff said the district and its partners are piloting new models and seeking funding approaches — including use of Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) voucher billing, a sliding fee scale and shifting some summer funding into the regular school year — to increase the number of subsidized slots.

District staff said the task force surveyed parents and educators in English and Spanish and received roughly 900 parent/caregiver responses and more than 1,000 responses overall. Presenters said parents and educators described different ideas of kindergarten readiness: parents prioritized letter and number recognition, while educators emphasized social‑emotional readiness and mental‑health supports. The task force used that input to recommend program, workforce and funding priorities.

What the district has done so far

Staff reported the district has implemented the Pyramid Model for social‑emotional supports in early childhood classrooms this school year, hired a behavior‑support specialist for early childhood, and opened a ‘‘transition classroom’’ for very high‑need preschoolers who require a smaller setting and additional staff until they can return to a typical classroom. Staff said six or seven children have used the transition classroom and most have transitioned back to their home classroom.

Other items the presenters highlighted: rollout of a new Frog Street curriculum; LENA language‑environment monitoring at one site; beginning national accreditation work for all five early‑childhood centers; use of ATLAS assessments for pre‑K‑4 students at one center to help set cut scores; and partnerships with outside organizations to support trauma‑informed training and professional development.

Summer program, slots and funding

For summer 2024 the district said it applied for and was granted site allocations, generally about 100 slots per approved site (some sites were described as having fewer or more slots; the presenter said, based on site surveys, the district expected roughly 750 summer slots in total). The summer model will run eight weeks and staff said it is intended to be budget‑neutral at the site level.

Staff described two payment tiers for the summer model: block or ABC funding for income‑eligible…