Special to The Truth
Enrollment Open Now with Nine Highly Rated, Neighborhood Preschool Providers
John C. Jones, president of HOPE Toledo, recently announced the organization’s partnership with nine community-based preschool providers to offer more than 200 high-quality, full-day, affordable preschool seats to four-year-olds across the Toledo area. Enrollment is available now at HopeToledoPreK.com with classes scheduled to begin September 1, 2021.
The nine, inaugural HOPE Toledo Pre-K partner providers are: All 4 Kids, Believe Academy, Catholic Club, Children’s Discovery Center (Talmadge), East Toledo Family Center, Learning Ladder Child Care 2, Quality Time Child Care Center, Rise and Shine Childcare Academy and Toledo Day Nursery.
“We are truly excited to see our vision begin to come to fruition through our partnership with these nine partner providers,” said Jones. “And this is just the start as we look to bring more providers on board in order to fulfill our mission — that every Toledo child has the opportunity to attend a high-quality early childhood educational program that prepares them to succeed in kindergarten and beyond.”
Currently, more than 80 percent of Toledo’s children enter kindergarten without the skills, behaviors or knowledge necessary for success (based on 2019 KRA scores). But high-quality, evidence-based preschool programs have been shown to improve outcomes for children throughout their lives.
Studies show that children who start kindergarten ready to learn are more likely to pass 3rd-grade reading tests, 8th-grade math tests, graduate from high school, go on to college, and earn more income over their lifetimes. Criteria for high-quality programs include:
Full-day instruction
Income-based, sliding-scale tuition
Comprehensive curriculum-led learning
Low teacher-to-child classroom ratios
Active parent engagement
Well-prepared, highly qualified educators
Routine developmental assessments
Support, coaching, and funding to help providers achieve and maintain quality
Regular program evaluations and accountable oversight
“High-quality preschool can help children succeed in their first years of school and reduce the early achievement gap,” said Dondra J. Coleman, administrator and owner of Learning Ladder Child Care. “This is especially important for low-to-moderate income families who have historically had to deal with disparities related to the achievement gap and everything that goes with it,” she said.
“We are grateful for the partnership with HOPE Toledo because it allows us to serve families who potentially couldn’t afford these opportunities otherwise,” said Coleman.
For more information or to enroll your child, visit HopeToledoPreK.com. For more information on how to become a HOPE Toledo Pre-K Provider, contact Elisa Huss-Hage at elisa@hope-toledo.org or call 419-367-8600.
HOPE Toledo is a 501(c) 3 organization and encompasses HOPE Toledo Pre-K and HOPE Toledo Promise. The mission of HOPE Toledo is to work with the Toledo community to support and ensure high-quality educational experiences for all of our youth, from preschool to post-secondary and trade school, with the goal of helping to create generational economic change for the betterment of our families and our community.
This cradle-to-career-to-community approach will better serve our children and, in the long run, help our city progress towards a stronger, more educated workforce. To that end, HOPE Toledo is working with the Toledo community, through public/private partnerships and in tandem with Toledo Public Schools and Washington Local Schools, to develop a plan to deliver high-quality educational experiences for all of our youth. For more information, to get involved, or to donate, visit hope-toledo.org.