Pre-K Pilot Beginning Soon, A Tight Timeline For Some Counties

Sonia Hooda / Flickr

The pre-k pilot program will launch in four counties in January, a quick turnaround since counties found out about their selection in July.

After becoming law back in March, the state’s pre-k pilot, On My Way Pre-K, will soon become a reality. Four of the five counties are poised to launch in January, and applications for providers and families wanting to participate are now available.

The five counties selected to participate in the program weren’t announced until the end of July, leaving organizers in those counties five months to fundraise, select eligible providers and work on recruiting eligible children.

In the counties’ original applications, they outlined their short-term capacity for preschool students: how many spots are available, how many potential providers, possible sources of fundraising, etc. So not to say they started the process from scratch back in July, but five months before launch means things have moved quickly in many places.

Dennis Rittenmeyer, Executive Director of ONE Region in Munster and head of the Lake County program, says their program’s biggest challenge right now is fundraising. According to the law that created the program, at least 10 percent of funding used for scholarships in a county but no more than 50 percent must be raised by the county to supplement the state’s contribution to the program. 

“It’s a work in progress,” Rittenmeyer says. “Everybody’s new to this.”

After four months of fundraising, Rittenmeyer says they are gathering a lot of smaller donations, where he thinks counties like Marion receive large donations from single entities.

The Family and Social Services Administration will accept applications from providers on a rolling basis, but parent applications are due by Dec. 15. Children must be four by the time they start a preschool program in August 2015 to be an eligible student to receive scholarship money through the program.