Trego's Mountain Ear

It is not, technically,a pre-K program. Rather, it is described as “transitional kindergarten”. It consists of one afternoon a week, and accepts only four children.

Montana School boards have the option to admit four year-olds into kindergarten, which is the provision the program is based upon. Where things get a bit weird is that the board is required to have “exceptional circumstances” to justify this admission.

As a consequence, the application requires parents to determine which exceptional circumstance applies to their child.

How to Qualify:

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While I can appreciate the simplicity of taking the text directly from the policy, citing Montana code annotated without an explanation (and where a hyperlink is not available) doesn’t make understanding any easier.

So, the first two exceptional circumstances being rather self explanatory- what exactly is gifted and talented?

Montana Code Annotated 20-7-901 says that: “Gifted and talented children” means children of outstanding abilities who are capable of high performance and require differentiated educational programs beyond those normally offered in public schools in order to fully achieve their potential contribution to self and society. The children so identified include those with demonstrated achievement or potential ability in a variety of worthwhile human endeavors.

Since it allows for potential ability, and since Montana schools don’t normally offer any educational programs for four year-olds, this is probably broader than it looks.

The next likely candidate is homeless. Now, most of us with roofs over our heads don’t consider ourselves homeless. And, per the US Code cited, we really aren’t. But the board has some leeway there, and the board really should be using guidance from Montana’s office of public instruction… of course, by those standards anyone living off grid is homeless.

In short, parents that want their children to attend should probably check either the box for “homeless” or “gifted”. Of course, if the board wanted to simplify things, it could decide that “community based exceptional circumstances” are present. That would simplify the paperwork, and given the price of food/gas, the local housing shortage, and the percentage of our population living below the poverty line, probably be accurate.

Is a half day a week the best option?

It depends on what the board is trying to accomplish. If the goal is to let children know that school exists, and perhaps be less afraid of it the next year, probably. If it’s to educate- well, if they can admit the child for this half-day program, there is no reason they can’t admit them as a full or half time kindergarten student. If the child goes on to first grade, cool. If the child does a second year of kindergarten (or perhaps begins first grade material partially through that year- entirely feasible in a multi-grade classroom) also cool.

For a family struggling with childcare, gas prices, or hoping to benefit from Trego School’s free lunches for two meals five days a week, early kindergarten admission is a much better option. Similarly, for a child that is gifted/talented, early admission makes far more sense than a half-day program.

Could the school actually have a preschool program?

The school itself cannot legally do so, however, it absolutely could rent a classroom to a preschool, and share bus/cafeteria services. Since that isn’t happening at the moment, early admission into kindergarten is really as close as the school can come.