Twenty counties are now eligible to participate in On My Way, a pre-kindergarten program aimed to provide early education to eligible children from low-income families.
Marshall County and Kosciusko County are among the counties chosen to pilot the program for four-year-old children beginning in January of 2018.
Children in this program have the opportunity to gain language comprehension, early literacy, executive functioning and a reduction of behavior problems in the classroom.
Marshall County demonstrated readiness and need to support an expansion of the On My Way Pre-K program in terms of implementation and sustainment of the program and the ability to raise community monetary contributions toward the cause. Public and private schools expressed involvement as well as child care home providers, child care centers and ministries.
Linda Yoder from Marshall County United Way attended several local government meetings expressing the need for this program and helped solicit funds to have a chance at offering this experience to local children.
The 2017 Early Learning Advisory Council annual report estimates about 6,700 four-year-old children in the 20 counties eligible for this program are identified as being in families with low income at or below 127 percent of the Federal Poverty Level.
