Education

Arlington ISD Hosts ‘Signing Day' For Pre-K, Kindergarten Registration

Pre-K is not required in Texas, though Arlington ISD's director of early childhood education encourages it

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Pre-K and kindergarten registration has opened at the Arlington Independent School District, and to encourage excitement for families, the district held a “signing day” event for its youngest learners.

Sign-ups were held at Webb Elementary on Tuesday evening, but this “signing day” did not include star athletes committing to collegiate or professional sports.

“Yes, just like what we do in the high school level,” Dr. Jackeline Orsini said. “This is where everything starts with the Pre-K and kindergarten. We are going to make sure all of our families in our school districts feel welcomed."

Orsini is the director of early childhood education at Arlington ISD. Registration opened on Monday with more than 700 sign-ups. The district had not calculated its total sign-ups including Tuesday, as of this writing.

Robert Juarez of Arlington registered his daughter Ariel for Pre-K on Tuesday night.

“As we were walking into the school, just the first four years of her life flashed before my eyes,” Juarez said. “I truly think that she will just hit the road running.”

Though Pre-K is not required in Texas, educators like Orsini strongly recommend it. Arlington ISD is in its first year of introducing a STEM curriculum for its Pre-K students as young as 4 years old.

Orsini said it helps foster problem-solving skills and socialization.

“Four-year-old students are curious by nature. They like hands-on. They like to do experiments. They like to ask questions. They like to try things,” she said. “I’ll give you an example. Let’s create this bridge. Then we provide all of these materials that sometimes they have at home. You’ll be very impressed by how they make a bridge made of things that we would never probably think were used for that.”

Parents who missed signing day can still register students. For more information, click here.

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