More city children get extra help for kindergarten

Andy Hall:


Record numbers of Madison children — and their parents — this summer are enrolled in programs aiming to make sure children are ready when they begin kindergarten.
The significant rise in publicly and privately funded kindergarten-readiness efforts is an investment that will pay off, educators and parents say, in students’ higher rates of success in school and as adults.
“My daughter needs to learn lots of things,” said Claudia Diaz, who has signed up for a new privately funded program called KinderReady with her daughter, Michelle Villegas-Diaz, 3.
“And if I learn these, in the future Michelle is going to be a better person.”
While Diaz and her daughter are receiving help at home and at a day-care center, record numbers of incoming kindergartners are heading off to summer school across Madison.