Free full-day kindergarten: Why Holliston moved away from an 'antiquated' system

HOLLISTON — This year, Holliston joins a long list of Massachusetts cities and towns to offer free, full-day kindergarten, but getting the program started wasn't child's play.

The new full-day free kindergarten program was announced in Holliston Superintendent of Schools Susan Kustka's summer newsletter. In it, she said that the program is now an annual appropriation in the annual school budget, meaning money is now set aside to fund the program.

"Now all of our kids have equal opportunities to get the same amount of literacy and we're thrilled from that respect. We feel like given the constraint from COVID and the regression from COVID, it's also part of our plan to help these kids socially and academically and kind of level off," Kustka said in an interview Tuesday.

Why educators in Holliston believe free full-day kindergarten is necessary

The new program will also help with equity problems in the school district, according to Kustka. Previously, Holliston families had to pay $3,475 in order to send children to full-day kindergarten. Holliston's half-day program was always provided by the school district.

"Sometimes it would be our students that were having socio-economic concerns were the same ones that weren't attending full-day-K," Kustka said.

With the implementation of the program, Holliston joins a majority of municipalities in Massachusetts to offer the program, with only a few Commonwealth school districts not offering the program. According to school and town officials, implementing the program was years in the making.

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Kustka explained that she began the process of trying to implement this when she joined Holliston Public Schools in 2020.

"I put together a proposal and surveyed parents and found out even though 10% of our students were not attending full-day-K, 63% of our families were saying they were struggling somewhat or more than somewhat to pay for it," Kustka said.

Where is the money for full-day kindergarten coming from

Town Administrator Travis Ahern said that the original plan of implementing free kindergarten involved removing the fee over three-to-five budget years so as not to cut other critical services. But, with improved Chapter 70 funding from the state, the town was able to get full-day kindergarten into the 2024 fiscal year operating budget.

Chapter 70 is a state program that provides aid to public elementary and secondary schools. In addition to providing state aid to support school operations, Chapter 70 also establishes minimum spending requirements for each school district and minim requirements for each municipality's share of school costs.

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"The Select Board was excited to support the School Committee's request, and the recommendation of the ARPA Steering group, to dispose of a long-standing fee for service that had previously put a financial burden on young families in Holliston who chose to have their child go to full-day kindergarten, rather than half-day," Ahern said in an email to the Daily News.

For the 2023 fiscal year, Holliston received $8,671,139 in Chapter 70 aid. This was an increase from the $8,014,336 received in the previous fiscal year, according to state data.

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Kustka explained that the increase in money was from an increase in students in the half-day program, which went from 110 to 220.

"This fee for service is an antiquated model considering the importance of kindergarten in early childhood development and Holliston was one of only a handful of communities in the Commonwealth that had yet to remove it," Ahern said.

Ahern said is excited the town finally removed the fee for good.

When does kindergarten start in Holliston

Kindergarten opening day in Holliston is on August 30.

This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Holliston full-day kindergarten is now free for all. How it happened