Baton Rouge Senator and Senate Education Chairman Cleo Fields will be speaking at a few schools across the state Tuesday and Wednesday about his recently signed bill mandating Kindergarten for five-year-olds.
Fields wants to explain the new law to parents. He said the concept is pretty simple; if your kid turns five by September 30th next year they must be enrolled in kindergarten. If they turn five after September 30th you have the choice of enrolling them in kindergarten or holding them out for another year. The law will kick in for the start of the 2022-2023 school year next fall.
Fields said he expects to get quite a few questions from parents who’d rather homeschool their five-year-olds. He said they’ll have two options for homeschooling, one in which you follow the TOPS eligible state curriculum and another where you just homeschool your child and not follow the state curriculum.
Fields said he’s excited to have the state become the 13th in the nation to adopt this requirement that five-year-olds go to kindergarten.
“Most of the brain development occurs between one and five years of age so it is so important that we invest in early childhood education,” said Fields.
Fields will visit Capitol Elementary in Baton Rouge and JB Nachman Elementary in Alexandria Tuesday, and Shreve Island Elementary in Shreveport Wednesday.
Comments