By Joanne Degnan, Managing Editor
ALLENTOWN The school district will be offering a new full-day preschool program in September that includes free bus transportation for Allentown and Upper Freehold children as part of the monthly tuition.
The 10-month preschool program, called Stepping Stones, will emphasize language and social skills for children 3½ to 5 years of age, according to school district officials. The preschool class will run from 8:40 a.m. to 3:25 p.m. weekdays and follow the same calendar as the Newell Elementary School.
Stepping Stones will be an integrated preschool program in which typically developing children and preschoolers eligible for special education services learn together in the same classroom, school district officials said.
”It’s always better if we can instruct our students in an integrated setting so that we would have typically developed children and children on (individualized) education plans working together and, hopefully, maximizing the program for all students,” Upper Freehold Regional Schools Superintendent Richard Fitzpatrick said at the Feb. 1 school board meeting.
Offering an integrated preschool program allows the district to keep its special education preschoolers in the district instead of sending them to schools in other communities. Typically developing children in an integrated preschool class have the benefit of a full-day education program with a low teacher-student ratio at a cost that often is much less than full-day tuition at a private preschool.
Dr. Fitzpatrick said the preschool class will be capped at 12 students, and the spots would be filled on a first-come first-served basis.
Stepping Stones will utilize the Creative Curriculum for Preschool, a state-approved curriculum based upon research of how children develop and learn. The $7,200 tuition is payable in 10 monthly installments of $720 and includes free bus transportation for Upper Freehold and Allentown students, a free snack and the opportunity to obtain a school lunch at a cost of $2.10 a day, district officials said.
Parents who are interested in the program should contact Janice Pejka at 609-259-7292, ext. 3350.

