FAMILY CENTRAL UPDATE

Today we were joined by our lovely inbound exchange student, Aneta, and visitor Bill Johnson, a guest of visiting Rotarian Bob Price. Bob is leaving us to head home this week. Bill is a retired Journalist/MarComm professional/TV executive.

Our guest speaker today was Dr. Carol Wasserman from Family Central, Inc. Her topic was VPK – the Voluntary Prekindergarden program. VPK is a legislatively mandated program designed to prepare every four-year-old in Florida for kindergarten. It is funded primarily with state money, which allots a mere $2,600 per child for three hours per day for a school year (breaks down to less than $5/hr). New rules going into effect will further cut providers’ funding if an enrolled child misses more than 20% of the required school year days’ attendance. There are between 400-500 VPK providers in Broward County, with 33 in Coral Springs. When kindergarden children are skills-tested in the early fall, if they have attended VPK, their provider is rated based on the child’s scores. This pressure to prepare four-year-old children whose developmental skills can range greatly for standardized testing coupled with inadequate resources to hire and retain qualified VPK staff is straining facilities. Because of underfunding, the number is dwindling, leaving thousands of children on waiting lists. Those affected the most are children from lower income families and the “at risk” population.