While all students benefit, it's shown to especially give children from lower-income homes a leg up, closing an early learning gap often associated with economic status.
But for families who live in rural Appalachia, Kentucky, pre-K isn't always an option.
"Part of it is geographic isolation. Some have no transportation, no buses go there and they don't have broadband access. Having the classroom brought to them is powerful," Dreama Gentry said. She's executive director of Partners for Education at Berea College in Kentucky.
In 2016, Gentry and Tennant Kirk, early childhood project director at Berea College's Partners for Education, turned two school buses into pre-K classrooms.
At no cost to the families, buses "Rosie" and "Sunny" park in their student's driveways in rural Clay County, Kentucky, to introduce 3- and 4-year-olds to books, letters and numbers.
They've served nearly 100 preschoolers and their families.
Poverty rates in Appalachian Kentucky are at or have exceeded 20% for more than 30 years. Just 29% of 4-year-olds attended public preschool in 2018, and only a little more than half of the state's children were ready for kindergarten, according to Kentucky's 2018 kindergarten readiness results.
The biggest challenge, said Gentry, was finding the right community partners who have a pulse on the community to connect them to the families who might benefit most from the pre-K buses and "keep us from being an outsider, because often, we're seen that way," she said.
"Once we got that, the rest came into place."
It's also the state with the highest number of children living with caregivers other than their parents.
For one child who had been removed from his parents and was living with relatives, being left at a pre-K center triggered the trauma of abandonment. Bringing the class to him and building a foundation of trust first were key.
Recognizing the need for whole-family support, the more unique piece of the program involves engaging the adults.
Other than the early childhood educator, the bus is also staffed with a family navigator who partners with caretakers and parents to set goals like completing a GED, quitting smoking or getting advice on family nutrition.
"Often parents who are dealing with poverty and little children in these areas don't have the option to talk to anyone. We know if we can build that resilience and mitigate stress, we can benefit both them and the child. The two-generation approach is what stands out," Gentry said.
To demystify the formal education setting, once a month families are invited to a gathering at the local elementary school so the parents and children can overcome isolation and build community.
The buses also became an information hub. Job-training specialists came to spread the word about their workshops, and people from the food bank came to offer services, too.
But the best payoff came from the children.
"One of the most inspirational moments is when the kids graduated from the bus. They had confidence that many of the caregivers didn't have when they went to school," Gentry said.
Recently, the Readiness Bus program has been adopted by local community agencies who continue with its original mission.
©2020 Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Fla. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
