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Ocala
Friday, March 29, 2024

MCPS implementing ‘stagger start’ program for kindergarten classrooms

Marion County Public Schools is implementing a “Kindergarten Stagger Start” program to provide a more personalized approach for the young students as they experience school for the first time.

On Wednesday, August 10 through Friday, August 12, kindergarten classrooms will be split into thirds to help lower the student-to-teacher ratio. Afterward, all kindergarten students will report to class collectively beginning on Monday, August 15.

While the “Kindergarten Stagger Start” is weeks away, there are plenty of things that parents and families can do to ready their youngest students for school, including reading together, establishing routines, practicing how to open lunch items, reviewing numbers, letters, shapes, and colors, and more.

Last week, for the first time ever, brand new MCPS students went to school before the new school year even started.

Over 260 kindergarten students spent time with their teachers in most of the district’s elementary schools, according to MCPS. The “Kindergarten Kickstart” effort kept class sizes limited to a handful of students per teacher and offered incoming kindergarten students – all five years old by September 1 as required by state law – a head start to full-time school.

The opportunity provided bonding time between teachers and students, afforded social time for students to learn and play together, and made a new school environment a little less intimidating before the school year officially begins.

For more information and resources to prepare students for kindergarten, please visit the Marion County Public Schools ‘Full Steam Ahead to Kindergarten’ webpage.