A federal Preschool Development Grant allowed Nevada to enroll 782 4-year-olds in full-day preschool last year, according to an April 1 announcement by the Nevada Department of Education.
“Nevada Ready!” as the state’s preschool program is known, was meant to enroll 900 students in full-day preschool, but that goal wasn’t quite met. The schedule outlined in the Nevada Ready! State Preschool Grant Overview, calls for 660 existing half-day preschool seats to be converted to full-day seats and 240 new seats to be added.
“I’m optimistic that the next three years of funding will continue to provide meaningful support in areas such as literacy to children and their families,” said state Superintendent, Steve Canavero said in a statement. The state plan is to have added 1,560 students by then and to convert 1,430 slots to full-day from half-day.
Nevada received $43 million over three years from the U.S. government in December 2014. Nevada’s state legislature agreed, in mid-2015, to a “match” of $23 million in state funding over that same time period to expand its program for 4-year-olds from low-income families. The federal grant and state funding will be used over a three year period ending in fiscal year 2018-19.
Nevada Department of Education officials estimate that total enrollment will grow to 2,990 over the next three years.