PROGRAM SERVES LOW-INCOME FAMILIES
Two Platte County early childhood education programs are among those to be shuttered at the end of the school year due to staffing issues, according to local administrators.
The YMCA of Greater Kansas City is shutting down its Head Start program.
The program provides preschool education, nutrition and health services for children from low-income families, as well as children with diagnosed disabilities.
The programs in the Platte County R-3 and Park Hill School Districts, are being closed due to a lack of qualified teachers, said Paula Oxler, vice president of marketing and communications with the YMCA of Greater Kansas City, which operates the programs.
The two are among five being closed.
About 330 Kansas City area families in five Kansas City area school district attendance areas are being affected, Oxler said.
Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) staff is “working diligently” to find new partner organizations, as an alternative to the YMCA and qualified staff to perhaps re-open the programs, said Head Start director Kasey Lawson.
“We’ve gained so much and were so close,” Lawson said of the staffing issues, which have been ongoing since COVID and showed up in not enough people applying for open teacher positions at Head Start centers.
MARC contracts with local partners, such as the YMCA, to distribute federal funding for Kansas City area programs, which serve children in Jackson, Clay and Platte counties.
Due to the closings, MARC officials will help families find “alternatives for placement” and are, therefore, having “individual conversations” with families who are impacted, Lawson said.
Kelly Wachel, chief communications officer for the Park Hill School District, said the 16 families affected by the shutdown in that district’s attendance area will be enrolled in one of two early childhood programs operated by the district.
She said the early educational programs are key to future success as children enter kindergarten. The results show up in academic skills, such as reading, and behavioral means such as interacting with peers and generally help provide a “jump start for how to be in school,” Wachel said.
Head Start, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, according to its website, offers “high quality” early childhood education for students whose families qualify, Lawson said.
She added, “We have to keep striving.”
