Syracuse City School District will receive a grant of nearly $1.7 million for universal full-day prekindergarten programs, Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently announced in a statewide preliminary awards list.

The awards list was announced on Aug. 18. Syracuse was seeking a $3 million grant, but received $1,682,448 in funds. The grants are still pending the approval of the state comptroller.

Several of the pre-K programs in Syracuse are funded by the government through the Early Head Start program.

PEACE, Inc., is an EHS program in Onondaga County that helps children ages three to five achieve their potential by providing early childhood development, health, family services and other support to participants and their families, who are typically from lower income backgrounds, according to the company’s website.

“Early Head Start at PEACE is solely government funded,” said Sharon Barrett, the PR and marketing director at Syracuse’s PEACE, Inc. The Syracuse EHS programs begin on Sept. 3 this year, she added.

Other Syracuse city schools with universal pre-K programs besides PEACE, Inc. are the Huntington School, Edward Smith School, H.W. Smith School and J.T. Roberts School, Barrett said.

There are 10,431 children under the age of three enrolled in EHS programs in New York, according to the website for Grow America Stronger, a national campaign devoted to improving the quality and priority of early childhood programs.

During the 2012-13 school year, the campaign said on its website that 45 percent of New York’s 4-year-olds were enrolled in the state-funded universal pre-K program, and this percentage is expected to rise because of Cuomo’s grant.

Schools across New York will be distributed a total of $340 million, of which $300 million will be allocated to New York City. Nine other central school districts will receive more than $5.5 million for pre-K classes during the coming school year.

School districts and community-based organizations applied for the pre-K grants, which were available as part of the state budget, in early July.

Only 84 of the state’s nearly 700 school districts, including New York City, applied for the funds, and 54 school districts were awarded grants, according to an article from capitalnewyork.com. Under the structure of the grant funding, districts have to pay for the program up front and wait almost a year before the district receives funding.

The Statewide Universal Full-Day Prekindergarten Program made the grants competitive to encourage school districts in New York to create innovative early childhood programs, according to a press release by the Syracuse City School District.

The press release added that the Syracuse City School District proposal included working collaboratively with partner agencies to increase the number of full-day pre-K seats.

The grant includes funding to reinforce “the vast system-wide health, social/emotional and language needs of students and families,” the press release said.

Michael Henesey, the communications coordinator of the Syracuse City School District, said the district applied for a $3 million grant and has yet to receive information on what part of the grant wasn’t accepted and what was funded.

Published on August 27, 2014 at 12:01 am

Contact Anna: almerod@syr.edu