Debbie Jones gave a “good/not-so good” report to Monongalia Board of Education members Tuesday night.
The good news, said Jones, who directs early childhood programs for Mon’s Head Start and Early Head Start efforts, is that it’s never too young for a kid to start making the grade here.
Now, the news that isn’t so good: In Monongalia County these days, one can also never be too old to be tasked with caring for a school-aged youngster.
The region’s burgeoning opioid crisis and shifts in the economic landscape are among the reasons, Jones told the BOE.
That more and more grandparents are stepping up to be the primary caregivers of their grandchildren isn’t necessarily a surprise, she said.
But now, Jones reports, aunts and uncles are also being enlisted.
“And we even have a great-grandparent we’re working with now.”
The new dynamic is called “kinship care,” she said.
And it can make for some confusion, should that caregiver be someone who is older and unfamiliar with schools and classes now.
“We’re looking at people who haven’t been in a school building in years,” the director said.
In the meantime, registration is currently underway. Your child must be 4 on or before June 30 to apply for this fall.
Jones and her colleagues are standing ready for that process, with advice and other refreshers for when the bell rings.
They’ve even been known to make house calls.
“That’s what we’re here for,” she said.
Head Start and Early Head Start have been here since 1965, as part of President Johnson’s War on Poverty in the nation.
More than 90% of Head Start teachers in West Virginia have at least a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education or a related field, as chronicled in a 2016 report from Rutgers University.
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