District 91 will not offer all-day kindergarten due to low registration numbers
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IDAHO FALLS — Idaho Falls School District 91 will not be offering all-day kindergarten this fall.
In an district email send to parents, Director of Elementary Education Kelly Coughenour said the district didn’t get the necessary number of students to register in the programs at either Longfellow or Sunnyside elementary schools. Both schools were to serve as pilot programs for all-day kindergarten in the district.
“After the district’s initial interest survey, it appeared there was enough interest to pilot a fee-based all-day kindergarten program at Sunnyside and Longfellow elementary schools. In order to run the program, we needed 25 students to register at each school, but we didn’t get those numbers,” Coughenour wrote in the email.
District spokeswoman Margaret Wimborne said only 18 children were signed up at Sunnyside and eight at Longfellow.
RELATED: Idaho Falls District 91 OKs all-day kindergarten pilot
Coughenour said since Idaho does not reimburse school districts for all-day kindergarten, the district needed a certain number of students to cover the additional costs of the program.
“Our goal was to offer all-day kindergarten as a way to provide our parents more choice and flexibility,” Coughenour wrote. “But it was always dependent on demand and parent interest. While we cannot offer all-day kindergarten at this time, the district may revisit the issue again in the future.”
The program would have had an estimated monthly fee of $275 per child, a one-time $25 registration fee and additional fees for students who eat school lunch.
EastIdahoNews.com will update this article as more details are available.