May 24, 2005
In pre-kindergarten kids are interacting and learning and they're also getting expelled. A recent study from Yale shows that three and four-year-olds are three times more likely to get expelled than students in K-12th grade.
"I'm shocked at the study. I'm shocked that they're having those kind of numbers," said Sharon Jones, a daycare administrator.
The study focused on nearly 4,000 state funded pre-K programs in 40 states. In Virginia, 12 percent of teachers reported having expelled at least one pre-K student over the past year making the Commonwealth the tenth highest among the states. However, local daycare providers said they don't see it.
"We really don't have that. I've never seen that as an issue here," Carol Baber of ABC Preschool.
"Here in Albemarle county we're very fortunate because the public school systems work in conjunction with private daycare," said Jones.
What would cause a daycare to go the route of expulsion? Experts said behavior problems are the main issue, but add that a lot of it is typical at a young age.
"They're also at four and five learning to empathize, they're learning to verbalize with ease and they're learning how to control their bodies and their emotions and that's not an easy thing to do always," said Baber.
Daycare providers also believe communication with parents is key in keeping their little ones in check. It seems most parents in the Commonwealth do make things work with their children and daycare.
"We have found out in Virginia that parents have a 95 percent satisfaction rate with their childcare centers," said Jones.
