PORTLAND, Maine — Nana Kanjinga was getting ready to sign her four-year-old daughter up for pre-K in Portland Public Schools. On Thursday, she explained why it was an essential step for her daughter's future.
"School readiness, exposure, preparation," she said. "Also, to give her the best chances to succeed."
Portland Public Schools is scaling up its access to free pre-K, though it's not yet a perfect system. District leaders expect to offer 227-259 pre-K slots during the next school year. That's 96 more than they provided in 2019 when they charted a five-year plan to expand programs to more of the city's families.
If every available slot fills up and more parents are still trying to enroll their kids, each name will be put into a lottery. Assistant Superintendent of Teaching & Learning Melea Nalli said it's not purely a blind draw to balance out the number of low-income families that get in. But it's not yet the universal access Portland is striving for in its plan.
Nevertheless, the district remains on track in year four of its plan, despite the pandemic making an unexpected arrival.
"We feel really proud of the fact that we are on track to meet the expansion targets we had set, despite the fact that the pandemic has really shaken things up for us," Nallie said.
Lee Anne Larsen with the Maine Department of Education said nearly 80% of Maine school districts offer programs.
"We want to see public pre-K available to as many children in our state who want to be able to take advantage of that," Larsen said. "...We're not there yet, but I think we're making good progress to getting to the point where we're as close to what you might consider to be universal as we probably will be."
On Jan. 24, Gov. Janet Mills announced $2.7 million in state grant funding would create or reinvigorate pre-K programs at 14 districts throughout the state. She promised a second round of grant funding, totaling $6.3 million, would reach yet-to-be-determined communities in fall 2023.
Through investments and partnerships with private preschool programs, Maine's schools provided free pre-K to more than 5,500 students this school year.
Kanjinga, who works for Portland Public Schools, hoped for luck for the next school year. Even she had no idea if her daughter's name would be chosen in Portland's lottery in March.
Portland Public Schools listed pre-K information for parents in multiple languages here.
Parents can find more information on how to sign up for the pre-K lottery on the district's website.