Hamden Public Schools Gets 10 New Preschool Seats

Gov. Dannel Malloy's education reforms will add 10 new preschool seats to the Hamden Public Schools, but the district's need for such seats is still great.

School officials to learn that the district would not receive any additional funding for the seats in the first round, but has snagged 10 seats in the second round.

"We are ecstatic that we received 10 slots. We have been preparing for them since the close of the legislative session in the hopes that we would receive at least 10," Supt. of Schools Fran Rabinowitz said. "We will open another class at Helen Street School, which has a significant number of students who don’t attend preschool."

When Malloy indicated there would be a second round of funding, school officials told him the district could accomodate and has the need for about 50 more seats. 

But Malloy's allocation of seats went more toward what are considered high priority districts. New Haven got 53, Bridgeport 130, Hartford 64, Meriden 58, Norwalk 50 and Waterbury 51.

"We know that it will make a very big difference in the preparation of these students for kindergarten," Rabinowitz said. "We are grateful to our legislators who advocated for these slots and we hope that this is the beginning of a trend of providing more preschool slots to Hamden each year."

“High-quality preschool programs can contribute significantly to a child’s healthy development,” said State Department of Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor.  “In order to prevent performance gaps and increase academic success, it’s important for us to invest in high-quality early childhood education.”

“When this bill was under consideration, I felt strongly the state should maximize its commitment to school readiness, and I’m delighted the resulting law provides for 1,000 young students, 46 of them right here in the 17th Senatorial District,” said State Sen. Joseph Crisco, who represents parts of Hamden. “These opportunities will help ensure these students enter kindergarten with adequate and age-appropriate communications and math skills. 

“Just as importantly, school readiness programs help teachers, parents, and students alike identify potential obstacles to learning so they can be addressed in a timely fashion, and they provide social and emotional readiness as well,” he said.

“We’re pleased this process was completed so quickly, allowing school districts benefitting from the added preschool slots the time necessary to prepare for the upcoming school year," said Maggie Adair, executive director of the CT Early Childhood Alliance.

"The increased slots will allow more children, particularly children living in high-need areas, the opportunity to have a high-quality early learning experience," she said. "We are fortunate that Governor Malloy and the legislature acknowledge that investing in the earliest years of a child’s life will help close Connecticut’s achievement gap. ”

Here's how the numbers shook out:

Municipality

Total Funded

Ansonia

 21

Bloomfield

  4

Bridgeport

130

Bristol

 48

Danbury

 58

East Hartford

 30

East Haven

 14

Enfield

 12

Greenwich

 13

Griswold

 13

Groton

 20

Hamden

 10

Hartford

 64

Hebron

 18

Killingly

 15

Ledyard

 18

Manchester

  1

Meriden

 58

Middletown

  8

Naugatuck

 15

New Britain

 41

New Haven

 53

New London

 31

Norwalk

 50

Norwich

 26

Plainfield

  3

Putnam

 30

Stamford

  6

Stratford

 13

Torrington

 15

Vernon

 15

Waterbury

 51

West Hartford

 10

West Haven

 25

Winchester

 15

Windham

 16

Windsor

  6

Windsor Locks

 24

TOTAL

1,000