Extended Day Kindergarten

Beginning in the 2004-05 school year, the West Chester Area School District is providing an extended-day kindergarten program for at-risk learners. All students enter the regular half-day kindergarten program in their assigned schools in September. Those eligible for the extended program are then identified through a screening process the first few weeks of school. With the permission of their parents, the students then transfer into the extended-day program in mid-October.

The extended-day kindergarten program addresses the fact that language and preliteracy skills develop in children at different rates. Therefore, children enter kindergarten at differing developmental levels. The program offers additional supports to children who are developing at slower rates and helps ensure a greater measure of success as these children move into the elementary school grades.

Extended-day kindergarten is part of a wider district effort to ensure that we meet the needs of all children and, in the words of the federal law, Leave No Child Behind.

More information on extended-day kindergarten