Smart Start of Davidson County now taking applications
Smart Start of Davidson County is currently accepting applications for the N.C. Pre-K program. “Our goal is to help all children reach kindergarten ready to succeed,” said Mary Draughn, executive director of the local Smart Start program, which is part of the N.C. Partnership for Children.
The Pre-K program teaches language and literacy, thinking skills, self-control and self-confidence. The 2024-2025 application is for children who will turn 4 years old on or before Aug. 31, 2024 (born on or between Sept. 1, 2019 and Aug. 31, 2020).
The application form is online and at the office at 803 W. Center St. between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The telephone number is (336) 249-6688.
Preschool classrooms in Davidson County operate at least 6.5 hours a day Monday through Friday from late August to early June. Some locations offer extended care services after school or on teacher workdays but parents or guardians are responsible for those fees as well as transportation to and from the site. Some of the classrooms are in county elementary school buildings while others are in private child care centers. The family must live in the school district if they will attend a public Pre-K.
The program is free to qualifying families, except for minimal lunch fees if families don’t quality for free/reduced priced meals. Smart Start is different from Head Start, which is a federally funded program that has its own child care centers for low-income families.
Smart Start is a primarily state funded program that operates more like a voucher system for Pre-K in which children who qualify attend established public and private child care centers. Draughn said the Pre-K program serves about 335 children each year. “Qualification is based on income eligibility first or the child not being served in child care at this time,” she said. Once those who qualify by income are accepted, Draughn said other factors are considered, such as parents who are active military; children who have documented developmental disabilities or disorders; children who have chronic health conditions such as asthma or cerebral palsy that impede their ability to learn; and children with limited English skills. But the Pre-K program is only one part of the Smart Start services for children from birth to age 5 — the most critical years of a child’s development. “Eighty percent of a child’s brain development happens between birth and the age of 5,” Draughn noted.
Smart Start also offers a Child Care Scholarship Program that offers financial assistance to help income-eligible families pay for high quality child care. Parents or guardians have to be working at least 20 hours a week or be enrolled in school full time or have a combination of work and school requirements.
Another program for children from birth to age 5 is the Parents As Teachers School Readiness Program that provides in-home visits and resources for a little more than 100 parents to help their children learn at home.
One of those resources is the Smart Start Lending Library that allows parents, as well as child care providers, to check out skill- based kits for up to two weeks at a time.
Mary Draughn, executive director of Smart Start of Davidson County, stands in the office’s Lending Library, where parents and child care providers can check out skill-based kits for preschoolers. A cutout to the right promotes the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, which sends free, age-appropriate books to families with preschool children. {Photos: Vikki Broughton Hodges/Davidson Local}
Another resource is the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, in which age-appropriate books are mailed to the homes of children from birth to age 5 each month for free. The famous singer-songwriter established the program in partnership with local and state governments. While there are about 10,000 children in this age group in Davidson County, funds only cover about 4,000 homes.
Draughn noted funding from the state for Smart Start programs has been flat in the last several years and limits the number of children that can be served in the various programs. The non- profit organization accepts donations and has a large annual fundraiser each February called Boogie Bingo for Babies, which is a music bingo event for adults.
The Smart Start executive director said, however, the child care industry is facing a number of hurdles to provide services. She noted federal stabilization funds to help keep child care centers open during the pandemic will soon expire and many child care workers have left the field.
“We are experiencing a child care crisis in this country,” Draughn said. “We’ve had a mass exodus of child care providers because the average wage is $11 to $13 per hour. I think it’s sad that we pay more for someone to serve burgers than to care for our most vulnerable children.”
Draughn said she knows of five child care center in the county that have closed since the pandemic but is hoping some that were sold will reopen under new ownership. She also said there are more than 500 vacancies at child care centers in the county due to staffing shortages.
Draughn said some larger counties are now allocating funds to help bolster child care centers and their staffing shortages because it has become an economic development issue. Workers need child care to stay on the job.
“We all want to see our counties grow but we’ve got to have affordable and reliable child care to do that,” she said. City council members, county commissioners and county business leaders have been invited to attend the annual meeting of Smart Start of Davidson County on May 20, which will feature a showing of a documentary produced by the Rockingham Partnership for Children that shows how the child care crisis is contributing to a workforce shortage. “I hope this can start some conversations after the program,” Draughn said.
