New N.J. policy deems 7K children in low-income areas ineligible for Abbot pre-school

By James Queally/The Star-Ledger
December 03, 2009, 8:01PM

Nearly 7,000 children across the state are now ineligible for a pre-school program aimed at closing the learning gap in low-income neighborhoods the New Jersey Education Law Center said today.

The drop-off is the result of a change in the way the state Department of Education tracks the number of 3- and 4-year-olds living in a particular school district, said Elizabeth Athos, a senior attorney for the Law Center, a Newark-based advocacy group.

Athos said the state?s 31 "high-needs" districts were ordered to use only the total number of first-graders enrolled in their schools for the year to determine eligibility for the Abbott program, a banner project born from the Abbot v. Burke school equity rulings aimed at giving students from poor districts the same opportunities as those attending pre-school in wealthier ones.

"The law mandates all 3- and 4-year-old children are eligible for Abbott pre-school, regardless of whether they subsequently enroll in private or public schools in kindergarten or first grade," Athos wrote in a letter to the state education department.

Statewide, 6,891 potential pre-schoolers were rendered ineligible. Nearly a fifth of them are from Newark, where 1,632 children who were eligible in 2008 are now unable to attend Abbott programs. More than 2,000 children in Paterson and Jersey City are also ineligible.

"It is incredibly disheartening that our children will be missing out on the formidable years of education, where the basis of their learning begins," said Nakia White, a member of the Newark Public Schools advisory board. "We need to make sure that our children have access to this type of education at the earliest age possible