By MEGHAN MARQUARDT

mmarquardt@mininggazette.com

HANCOCK – For those involved with the Great Start Readiness Program, giving kids a successful school career starts early.

The GSRP is funded entirely by the state, with the Copper Country Intermediate School District acting as the grantee, and BHK Child Development and the Little Huskies Child Development Center acting as sub-recipients, CCISD Director of Special Education Christine Salo said.

To explain the program in a nutshell, “(The GSRP is) state-funded early childhood education for four-year-old children who meet eligibility requirements,” BHK Early Childhood Specialist Elen Maurer said.

According to the Michigan Department of Education, risk factors considered in the GRSP enrollment process include low family income, a diagnosed disability or identified developmental delay, and severe or challenging behavior, among others. Enrollment in the program is prioritized based on a child’s specific risk factors. According to the Risk Factor Data Report for the 2012-2013 school year, more than 20,000 children across the state participated in GSRP programs, in a variety of formats, including school-day, part-day, home-based and GSRP/Head Start blended programs.

Maurer said the GSRP’s programming helps to ensure that children get the strong start they need to succeed in their school career.

“Children who have that quality early childhood education arrive at school ready to be able to interact with their peers, develop a relationship with the adult in the classroom,” Maurer said. “They show advantages in all dimensions in academic learning, but especially that social piece – the social problem-solving with their peers, the emotional self-regulation, the emotional control – that’s really critical for being able to succeed when they get to kindergarten.”

In 2012, the MDE released a longitudinal evaluation conducted by the HighScope Educational Research Foundation, comparing a group of children who attended the pre-kindergarten program during the 1995-96 school year to a similar group of children who did not attend a program. The summary of the report showed GSRP graduates having a higher interest in school, passing the 4th grade Michigan Educational Assessment Program at a higher percentage, and taking more math courses, among other advantages. The full report is available online.

Maurer said implementation of the GSRP varies across the state, with individual ISDs implementing the program in the way that works best for them.

“Each ISD makes it work in their own way. There might be an ISD where all GSRP classrooms are strictly in public schools, operated with public school employees,” Maurer said. “Here, we have two sub-recipients, BHK and Little Huskies, so we would both be considered community-based organizations.”

One of the advantages of having BHK as one of the agencies implementing the program, Maurer said, is the ability to offer a longer, GSRP and Head Start blended program.

“Because, at BHK we offer Head Start programming, we can blend the funding of Head Start and GSRP and offer children a school-day-long session,” Maurer said.

However, putting together a high-quality program can be a challenge. According to the history of GSRP funding offered on the MDE’s website, funding for the program remained static, with funding based on $3,400 per child from the 2007-08 school year through the 2012-13 school year.

“We got a little bit more recently, but it’s been pretty level,” Maurer said. “That’s hard.”

Finding staff who meet the qualifications for the program can be challenging as well, Maurer said, as a GSRP teacher has to have a bachelor’s degree or higher in early childhood education or a teaching certificate with an Early Childhood (ZS) or Early Childhood Education (ZA) endorsement.

“If we don’t have that staffing, we can’t operate a classroom. Being an isolated, rural area with Northern Michigan just closing their early childhood ed program, it’s challenging to find people that want to live and work here that have those qualifications,” Maurer said.

In the future, Salo said she hopes teachers continue to become certified to teach in the GSRP, and Maurer said program-wide, she hopes to see a wider audience of children served, perhaps though extending the program to include three-year-olds, or raising the poverty level requirements for the programs.

For community members who are interested in getting involved, Maurer said the program requires an advisory committee that is a collaboration between the Great Start Collaborative, the ISD, the sub-recipients, teachers, parents and interested community members called the School Readiness Workgroup.

“Those folks look at all the components of the GSRP program, learn about them, and then if they have recommendations or comments, that comes to the ISD and to the sub-recipients to take that information.”

Maurer said informing parents with young children about the program is helpful as well, and directing them to get in touch with Salo at 482-4250 or Maurer at 487-6653 ext 109 for more information. Maurer said the School Readiness Workgroup is also working on a universal inquiry route for families that will be coming soon, where families can get more information about the program, and opt to be contacted by somebody from an agency with more information.

“If you know somebody with a young child, and if those parents want their child to have access to some high quality preschool, that’s the time to ask them, ‘Do you know about this program?'” Maurer said.