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Doyle signs 5K attendance bill into law
10/6/2009 4:14:00 PM
Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District kindergarten
teacher Cindy Littel reads to her class before Governor Jim Doyle
paid a visit to sign a new 5-year-old kindergarten attendance bill.
With a quick lesson in civics, Cindy Littel’s kindergarten class watched Governor Jim Doyle sign a law designed to renew Wisconsin’s commitment to kindergarten and ensure future generations a head start in their education.
The bill requires attendance for those enrolled in 5-year-old kindergarten and makes kindergarten a prerequisite for first grade with a local option for exemptions.
Littel, a kindergarten teacher at West Middleton Elementary School in the Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District, gave Doyle a collection of her students’ artwork during his visit to sign the 5k attendance bill. In return, Doyle handed all of her students the pens he used to sign the legislation.
“Kindergarten has had many advances in recent years and it is a critical part of education,” Littel said. “This bill emphasizes the importance of kindergarten.”
The current law that states school districts must offer kindergarten, but does not require attendance at age 5, remains unchanged. However, under the bill, once parents enroll their children in kindergarten, attendance is mandatory. That provision of the new law takes effect immediately. The provision making kindergarten a prerequisite for first grade takes effect in 2011.
The legislation – authored by Representative Jeff Smith, D-Eau Claire, and Senator Spencer Coggs, D-Milwaukee – makes kindergarten a prerequisite for admission to first grade. If parents choose not to enroll their children in kindergarten, local school boards are empowered to develop common sense exemptions for admission into first grade.
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Doyle signs the 5k attendance bill into law
surrounded by kindergarten students from
West Middleton Elementary School and,
from left, State Senator Spencer Coggs,
State Representative Jeff Smith, WEAC
Vice President Guy Costello, Kenosha
kindergarten teacher Anne Knapp, WEAC
President Mary Bell, Milwaukee Public
Schools kindergarten teacher Kelly
McMahon and Senator Jon Erpenbach. |
Doyle said the law makes sure children “get off to a good start in life,” and praised the “great kindergarten teachers in this state.”
“What we are saying in signing this bill is kindergarten is every bit as important as first grade,” Doyle said. “This bill will help to ensure we have great kindergarten for years and years to come.”
The 5k attendance bill is a 2009-10 WEAC Legislative Agenda item, and originates from a 2007 WEAC Representative Assembly resolution from Kenosha kindergarten teacher Anne Knapp to put a renewed emphasis on kindergarten.
Knapp, who has seen some students miss 60 to 80 days of kindergarten after being enrolled, said kindergarten’s role has been significantly enhanced over time. Traditional early education topics such as counting and reading are being introduced to younger students.
“They used to do those just in first grade but now that’s all in kindergarten,” Knapp said.
Too many absences from kindergarten, Knapp added, can put a student at a disadvantage when starting the first grade.
The law was championed by kindergarten teachers such as Knapp and Kelly McMahon of Milwaukee Public Schools. Knapp and McMahon watched Doyle sign the bill into law, and said they were proud their hard work to see a law passed was successful.
“It’s so exciting,” McMahon said.