S.F. has plenty of preschools, if you can afford them

Sioux Falls families have more preschool options than ever — if they can afford them.

As paid preschool programs expand to keep up with growing demand, the list of kids from lower-income families waiting for subsidized preschool remains long.

The Sioux Falls School District will double the size of its Learning Adventures program, adding new sections at Sonia Sotomayor and Discovery elementary schools. The paid program, which started in 2013 at Harvey Dunn Elementary School and quickly expanded to John Harris Elementary School, has grown each year.

Parents pay $125 biweekly for the district-run program, which covers the operational cost.

"We want to serve whatever need is out there, but if we can't break even, then we wouldn't run the program," coordinator DeeAnn Konrad said.

Learning Adventures was started in response to more out-of-state families moving to the district and asking about preschool options, Konrad said. South Dakota, unlike neighboring states Minnesota, Nebraska and Iowa, does not fund public preschool programs, which is why the district charges parents.

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Private preschools are also expanded to keep up with parent demand. Sioux Falls Lutheran has added preschool classes, including a program for 2 year olds, preschool director Sandy Tams said. Sioux Falls Christian saw an 8 percent increase last year in student enrollment, according to early childhood director Michele Baker.

The expanding options do little to help the hundreds of Sioux Falls families who can't afford to pay for early childhood education.

As of February, 269 children were on a waiting list for Head Start, a federally funded preschool program for low-income families.

In Sioux Falls, the federal government provides funding for 414 students whose families meet economic criteria. Those slots fill up every year, leaving a consistently long wait list, according to Val Peters, early childhood coordinator for the district.

Odell Davis, now a first grader, was one of the students who got into the Head Start without a wait. His mother, Valarie Davis, said he did not play with other kids before preschool.

"To have him there just to learn what it's like to be in a setting with other kids is important," Davis said.

The Sioux Falls School District's hands are tied when it comes to preschool funding. The district could offer public preschool, said Head Start supervisor Jane Leite, but it's not likely.

"The difficulty is that, of course, there's a responsibility to first fund K-12," Leite said.

Other funds do exist, though not enough to cover every child in need. Free preschool is available through title funds, migrant funds and special education funds, Peters said. And any child with a developmental delay or disability is eligible for early childhood programs through the district, she added. Those three programs account for about 700 preschoolers.

The Sioux Empire United Way also accepts several dozen kids from the Head Start wait list into its Preschool Opportunities Program (POP) that was developed for kids on the Head Start wait list through a partnership between the district and Sioux Empire United Way.

POP is helping about 70 kids this year, including 4-year-old Isabell Lambert. Amber Van Noort, said her daughter was scared to socialize with other kids her age, struggled to cut with scissors and could not write her name.

"I knew that if she were to wait until kindergarten," Van Noort said, "she wouldn't know how to do a lot of things that they've been teaching her."