Getting Ready for School - Minneapolis,MN

You are not required to put them in full day kindergarten, they learn the same amount in full day as half day, Full day is considered part day care and therefore costs money. If you don't have to have him in full day then don't. If you need someone to watch him the rest of the day, they check with childcare providers, some may be cheaper. Once you hit first grade it goes full day no cost, well it's in the taxes.

Unfortunatly, If you want your child to go to all day kindergarten, then you're stuck with the $350. If you want him to go 1/2 days, it should be free to you. If you need care for him outside of the 1/2 day or even full day, consider a daycare home or center...it's cheaper than paying for the the after care program that the school offers. I can relate, I have 7 yr old triplets that are in 1st grade this year and we just couldn't afford to have them go to all day Kindergarten. They went 1/2 day, every day and did all the things the full day kids did, minus the lunch time, recess, and rest time. Good luck to you.

Hi C.
I also live in Eagan so I assume you are looking at private schools for kindergarten? The district pays for 1/2 day kindergarten as far as I know. I do know that if you want full day families pay for the 2nd half of the day. Is that the cost for the 1/2 day?
I guess I don't have any other options. I currently have a son in preschool and he attends only 2 days 2 hours each day and for 12 weeks I pay about the same amount. My older children attended 1/2 day kindergarten so I didn't run into this issue here.
Hope you find the alternative you are looking for!
L.

Half-day (which amounts to 2.5 hours a day) Kindergarten is free. Full-day Kindergarten comes with a cost because it is not subsidized fully by taxes because it is not required that a school offer it. My daughter is also in the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan district in 2nd grade. We were glad she got in full-day K because it did benefit her educationally, and I don't know how we would have handled daycare and transportation otherwise. If you are working FT, you will either be paying daycare or for full-day K. In our calculations, it came out the same cost-wise, and much better for her to be in school. When your son moves to 1st grade your costs will go down.

BTW, we are VERY happy with the school that she is going to. Excellent teachers, involved principal, special help available when she needed help with reading in 1st grade, quite a diverse population.

Sounds like your in Burnsville school dist. I actually did qualify for the scholarship so my dd did do full day kindergarten and really didn't get much out of going full day. She could have easily gone to half day and did the same. Plus when she got to first grade I feel that her class basically sat around and waited for the half day or low achieving kids to catch up wasting my daughter's time.So it certainly didn't put a edge or help her be ahead because they all had to sit around and get everyone at the same level. I have seen kids go to half day and do better than the full day kids as well. To be completely honest too full day was mostly middle class white kids and half day was definately more diverse good in some ways and bad in some ways the low achieving kids aka poor kids all went to half day. Not giving you my opinion just stating what I noticed. I am not pleased with dist.191 at all so my this may come off biased.

I had enough of the crappy schools in district 191 and yanked my daughter out last year. Our home school is MW Savage and it disgusts me, then I have lots of friends whose kids go to other Burnsville schools and I've haven't heard to much positive to tell you the truth. The schools are at the point where they are to diverse, to many low income kids and they are trying to break it up and switch the boundaries if possible school board is discussing that. My daughter was nothing but a number and was ignored and pushed to the side. Had my daughter been a ESL student (students where English is a 2nd language) or had my daughter needed a IEP etc..she would have gotten what she needed but because she was a typical kid average kid when she did need help or assitance or a little more she was left to fall through the cracks. We had bully problems up the ying yang, I have a restraining order on a another mom from our bus stop, the principal was a joke, the superintendant did nothing, the whole district is horrible. My daughter was miserable.

So anyways I researched schools last year as I was extrememly unhappy with our school. I ended up putting my daughter over at St.John's Catholic school and absolutely LOVE it. Sure I pay tuition but it's not $350 a mo. and she's around normal kids with normal morals and values and they are very strict with bullying, high achieving school. My daughter is 100x happier. We are also NOT Catholic but the school is very open to any religion your family may be. If you want to know more I'd be happy to fill you in.

I also reasearched Charter Schools there is a really good one in Apple Valley Padiea or something and another one in Prior Lake Aspen Academy both are FREE! I believe they do have full day kindergarten too.

I would start researching schools, get your name on the waiting lists NOW they fill up fast.

My daughter is 8, 3rd grade so I've kinda seen alot and have experianced alot if you need anymore info let me know.

I don't understand why you are having to pay for kindergarten? Are you not looking at a public school that provides kindergarten at no cost (well, paid in your taxes)? Also, a home daycare may be cheaper for the before/after school care. I would give that a try.
S.