S/O Full vs. Half day K - do you pay for Full Day?

[Twoboos]

Our town is doing a pilot Full Day K program next year. Tuition is $3700.

I called the town next door (different county) and their Full Day tuition is $3000.

So - wondering if you have a public full/half day option, do you have to pay for full, and if so, how much?


(BTW - check out all these spin-off threads! Are we all just making each other think more, LOL?)

[SnuggleBuggles]

In my district they only have full but a few years ago they had both. You had to pay or half day, full day was the norm. They wanted you to pay because it was an inconvenience to run the bus that extra time.

Beth

[mom_hanna]

Our full day is $2100/year for public K. Half day is free. dd is going full day.

[Gena]

In my state school districts are not allowed to charge for full day kindergaten.

They may however offer a childcare/enrichment program that lengthens the kindergarten day. But (at least in my district) it's not structured like the regular kindy class and focus on academic readiness. Here the district charges $250/month for this program.

[almostmom]

My town piloted it this year, and I think the cost was about $3500, maybe 3K. I sent my DS to the 1/2 day program with an extended day program instead, as I wasn't sure they had it together yet for the full day K, even though I needed the coverage. I think the extended day was slightly more expensive.

[AnnieW625]

There is no cost to us for public school (outside of what we pay in property taxes) and so the difference for us will be in before/after school costs. If DD goes to kindy from 9 to 12 it's $700 a month (35 hrs. per week just for on site school care x 5/hr=$175 x4), if DD goes to kindy from 9 to 2, it's $500 a month (25 hrs. per day x 5/hr=$125 x4). I believe the local YMCA is $450 a month for both, but it's off site and I'd end up having to pick up DD at another school not so close to our house.

[KrisM]

Our district switched this year to full day and it's free.

Last year, it was alternate days and if you went full, you paid, but I don't know how much. But, it was not kindergarten, it was an enrichment program to fill in the other half of the week.

[Jen841]

Not really the answer you are looking for, but our area....
Only "public" full day is free via one charter school 3-4X the amount enrolled apply to my knowledge
We did Catholic for @$3600 for full day K

[erosenst]

Public school is free for half day, and $1500 a year (I think - it kept changing as the state subsidy changed) for full day. If we had chosen half-day, she would have had to go to a nearby public school for K, as it's no longer offered at her 'home' school - almost everyone chooses full day.

[boolady]

Where we currently live, public K is full-day only. I don't necessarily think we're still going to live here when DD is in K in 2 years, but all three of the towns we're looking to move to all have full-day only. If we moved somewhere that didn't, we would likely pay for full-day rather than have her in 1/2 day with 1/2 day plus of before/aftercare, since she'll have to go to aftercare anyway. She's already used to 4 full days per week.

[bubbaray]

Transitioning to free full-day K here over the next 2 years (over 50% start this coming September, rest of classes will be for 2011).

One district semi-local is currently charging for full-day K and IIRC, the gov't sued them over it. There can be no fee for public school instruction here, its in the School Act. They can only charge for field trips, etc..

[caheinz]

This is our district's second year offering full day. (There's only one half-day classroom in the entire district -- and we have 3 big high schools -- it's not a small district.) There's no tuition charge either way.

[JustMe]

No, I don't, but there is one model in my district that does. Most schools in my district offer part-day only. There are 2 schools, ours being one of them, that offers full day only (grant funded, I believe...they ar basically the lowest income schools) for free. Then I believe we have a couple of schools that are part day, with the option of adding extended day for a fee...I don't know how much that is as it does not apply to me.

[jenmcadams]

Public Full Day is $300/month x 10 payments ($3K); only exception are Title 1 schools or schools that have special grant $$ to have free full day.

1/2 day K is free

[klwa]

Our district only has full. No tuition required. So far as I know, most NC schools started with full day in the mid-70's, with no tuition.

[lmwbasye]

Never worked in a place where parents have had to pay for full-day K.

[egoldber]

I think in most places it is basically adding on additional time that costs money. So the "regular" half day program is free, but the option of extended day costs extra.

We are in the same district as g-mama, and our full day K is very likely be cut to half day K next year. It doesn't effect us until 2012, but in schools where there is currently still half day K, parents who need extended day care for K students pay extra. There is both "after K care" and then they also pay for "after school care". In our district, through the school based child care, that is $580 a month. Even though we could try to find a private full day K, at that point both kids would be in the same school for the first time EVER, and it will make life much more convenient.

[jess_g]

Our town got a state grant for full day Kindergarten for 2 years. It is free for the parents. Before this they only offered half day Kindergarten and parents could pay for their child to be in extended day which was mostly free time in one of the Kindergarten classrooms. In my opinion the full day Kindergarten is much better than what they offered before since the kids have so much more time in the classroom with the teacher. Next year when the grant runs out we will see what the town does. They will probably continue with full day but charge the parents for it.

Jessica.

[kerridean]

Full day KD here in San Antonio. We do not pay for it. It is mandatory full day KD. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!

[LD92599]

We have full day K and pay plenty of property taxes, no charge. There's still a few districts that are 1/2 day but most seem to be transitioning to Full and there's no extra cost for it (which is probably a reason as to why the prop. taxes are so high!).

[belovedgandp]

1/2 day K is free (less than $60 in fees) per year.

For full day K the district has been transitioning a weird combination of offerings over the past 6 to 8 years. Their goal when they started this plan a decade ago would have been to have everyone going to full day K for no additional fees, but the district grew like crazy so when there was money there wasn't space and now there's not money.

In a big suburban district (almost 40 K-5 schools) it's 1/3 only 1/2 day K, 1/3 offering both (1/2 day free and full day fee based), and 1/3 are Title I schools where only full day is offered and it is free.

This year full day K worked out to $2600 for the year. Next year it is over $4000.

[hellokitty]

My oldest is doing 1/2 day K right now. If we wanted him to do full day K, he would have had to been entered into a lottery, and the tuition would have been about $1200. I really wish that they had an, "enrichment" program instead, where they do the, 'school' work in the AM and then if you want to pay extra for your child to do art/gym/music, etc. for certain days of the wk for the enrichment, you could do that. It would have been the perfect option for us. I just think that for my son full day K every day would have been too much. Although for DS2, we will enroll him into full day, b/c he is one of those kids who thrives in the school environment and enjoys being busy. I have a feeling that by the time DS3 is ready for K, there probably won't be a 1/2 day K option anymore.

[calv]

we do 1/2 day (free). Full day is very limited and it's by lottery. Marjority want in. I believe it's about $2500 for the year

[pinkmomagain]

Wow. I've never heard of having to pay for public Kindy. We have full-day Kindy in our district...no other option...and it is free public school (well of course we pay taxes).

[lil_acorn]

Our full day K is a lottery system. If you get in, the cost is $3k for the year.

[C99]

At our public school, it's a full-day K -- no extra tuition. However, it varies among schools within the district (which I think is one of if not the largest districts in the country) -- some schools have half-day K, some have full-day K with a tuition fee, some have full-day K without a tuition fee, some have a mix of half and full-day without tuition, some have full-day K with fundraising to subsidize the tuition difference.

[kristenk]

Public K is full-day here, and it's free.

[kijip]

We paid $175 a month. Or got a month free for paying all at once, so that is what I did.

[schrocat]

We have full day kindergarten in our district. We don't have to pay for it. I wish it was half day though. It seems like an awfully long day for DS. I want him to be able to play at home more. :(