Nevada

Overview of Pre-K Program- Nevada Early Childhood Education Program

Program is voluntary and open to all children ages three to five. However, priority is given to four-and five-year-old children who will be eligible for kindergarten the next year.
Program has limited availability. In the 2008-2009 school year nine school districts and one community based program offered services through this program.
Eligibility criteria are determined by each grantee and are developed to serve the needs of their specific community. Programs may give priority to children from low-income households, English Language Learners or those with an IEP.
Services are provided through public schools, Head Start Centers and community-based programs.
Grants are funded as part of the Nevada Early Childhood Education Program legislation and are awarded by the state through a competitive process. Funds must be used to initiate new preschool programs or to expand existing ones.
Grantees must agree to offer a parenting component.
Administered through the Nevada Department of Education.

Program provides free, bilingual (English-Spanish) preschool classes for at-risk, underserved children who are rurally isolated or who reside in low-income neighborhoods throughout Southern Nevada.
Modeled after a 25 year old program in rural Tennessee; uses old school buses transformed into self-contained classrooms and painted to resemble Holstein cows.
Classes are offered 2 days to 4 days a week for two and half hours per class.
COWPreK classrooms use the HighScope framework and Creative Curriculum for PreSchool. Teachers help children develop perceptual, language, find and gross motor, counting, and reading-readiness skills.
Funded as part of the Nevada Early Childhood Education Program.

1992 Classroom on Wheels Program initiated with the help of the United Way of Southern Nevada.
2001 Program begins under the name Early Childhood Education Comprehensive Plan
2003 State continues funding of Nevada ECE Programs. These funds will be used to fund the Classroom on Wheels Program as well as the competitive grants for Nevada Early Childhood Education Program.
2008 Program serves 1,039 children statewide. COWPreK currently serves 332 children in 20 different classes on 8 buses.