Explanation
Mayor Ginther’s vision for Columbus, America’s Opportunity City, is to create access to a high-quality prekindergarten education for every 4-year-old. Addressing early childhood learning means bringing awareness and resources to a critical learning stage in childhood development. Children who come to school ready to learn are more likely to succeed academically and in life.
Children who participate in high-quality prekindergarten experiences significantly improve their early literacy, language, and math skills. Ample evidence shows that children who enter school unprepared fall farther and farther behind. Students who get a poor start in their earliest years are likely to struggle in high school and subsequently, fail to graduate.
Through Early Start Columbus, the Office of Education provides high-quality prekindergarten services to children throughout the City. However, data provided by Future Ready Columbus, an education-focused public-private partnership, shows that Kindergarten readiness scores in the Linden and Whitehall communities are lower than scores county-wide. Therefore the Office of Education plans to focus summer programming on those areas.
FISCAL IMPACT: This ordinance authorizes an expenditure of $140,000.00 from the 2022 Office of Education’s General Fund operating budget.
EMERGENCY DESIGNATION: Emergency designation is requested so programming may begin as soon as possible.
Title
To authorize the Director of the Office of Education to enter into a contract with Family, Adolescent and Child Community Engagement Services (FACCES), a non-profit organization that specializes in family engagement with a focus on academic navigation through their K-Ready Ohio program; to focus specifically in preparing children in Linden and Whitehall for Kindergarten; to authorize the expenditure of $140,000.00 from the General Fund; and to declare an emergency. ($140,000.00)
Body
WHEREAS, kindergarten readiness is essential for the succes...
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