Gov. Bev Perdue announced this morning that her administration will create 2,000 additional slots this year in NC Pre-K classrooms across North Carolina. She has identified $9.3 million that will allow the additional at-risk 4-year-olds to attend NC Pre-K.

“NC Pre-K is a nationally recognized, academic program that helps prepare children to succeed in kindergarten, throughout school and in life,” Gov. Perdue said. “This additional investment in our children will pay big dividends for all North Carolina because these children will be less likely to fall behind and drop out later in life.”

Dr. Olson Huff, Board President of The North Carolina Partnership for Children, Inc., said the following:

“Today, 2,000 four-year-olds around the state have been given a much-needed opportunity to benefit from a program that has been proven to help children succeed in school. Parents around the state are no doubt breathing a sigh of relief knowing that their children will not completely miss out on the benefits of high quality preschool.

“It is telling that the Governor made this announcement at a program that works in partnership with Smart Start and in the company of the Wake Smart Start Executive Director. In Superior Court Judge Howard Manning’s decision in the ongoing Leandro case, Judge Manning emphasized the importance of early education, calling particular attention to Smart Start, North Carolina’s early childhood system that serves children birth to five.

‘Put another way, each at-risk child under age 4 that is receiving services from Smart Start will be better prepared, physically and developmentally, to benefit from NCPK’s educationally based prekindergarten programs when they arrive at age 4,’ Judge Manning wrote.

We have only 2,000 days between the time a baby is born and when that child shows up for the first day of kindergarten. When we invest in those first 2,000 days, we create the best outcomes in education, health and economic prosperity for everyone in North Carolina.”

Governor Perdue said that the 2,000 additional slots represent the number of children that could be served immediately with available funding. The children would attend NC Pre-K from mid-March through mid-August, at which point, they will enter kindergarten. Local administrators have a process in place to determine which children will be placed in Pre-K programs.

Gov. Perdue has advocated expanding NC Pre-K as the General Assembly’s budget cut funding and reduced the number of slots available to at-risk four-year-olds. In July, Superior Court Judge Howard Manning issued an order in which he said that “[t]he State of North Carolina shall not deny any eligible at-risk four year old admission to the North Carolina Pre-Kindergarten Program (NCPK).” The Judge also directed the state to “provide the quality services of the NCPK to any eligible four year old that applies.”

Each year, approximately 67,000 at-risk four year olds in NC are eligible for the program. Current funding provides service for approximately 24,700 children. The additional funding for the 2,000 new slots will come from child care subsidy funds on a one-time basis to meet the urgent need of at-risk children who are not currently served by NC Pre-K.