Tuition-Free, Full-Day Kindergarten Desired, but Pricey

The end may slowly be arriving for half day kindergarten in Foxborough.

With only 19 students in one class at the Igo School, the school committee recently looked at the possibility of cutting the class and offering tuition-free, full-day kindergarten.

Currently, the school district offers free half-day kindergarten with full-day classes, which is in its eighth year, costing families $3,000 in tuition.

According to Superintendent Debra Spinelli, 262 communities in Massachusetts have full day, tuition-free kindergarten while only 79 have tuition-based classes. In Foxborough, the number of students in half-days classes is decreasing with the amount of classes down from two last year to one this year.

“We are becoming the minority. We are not hitting the standard and we’re going to bump our heads against a small number that it’s not going to be viable,” Spinelli said.

The roadblock for the switch to a tuition-free program will be the costs. Estimates has the program at $345,000 with the state providing only $2,100 more in Chapter 70 funding.

Extra costs for the program includes promoting the half-day teacher and educator assistant to full-time employees

The school committee is expected to take the issue up again at their next meeting.