About Our Program

The Title 1 Preschool program serves students who reside in Title 1 Elementary School zones. Children must be four years of age on or before August 15th of the current year. Fair Garden Community Center has multiple classrooms that serve 3-year-old students and 4-year-old students. In order to participate in the 3-year-old program, students must be three years of age on or before August 15th of the current year.

Proof of Residency is required for acceptance into a Title 1 Preschool class.  Proof of residency may be a lease or mortgage letter, a current utility bill, or a notarized letter with proof of residency fro the person who completes the letter. 

Daily Schedule

All Title 1 programs operate on a 6 hour school day. Start and end times vary per school. Transportation is not provided for Title 1 students.

Attendance Expectations

Your child’s potential for growth and development is maximized through consistent participation in a high-quality environment. Establishing consistent attendance routines in pre-k and kindergarten will increase chances of success in all future school experiences and will decrease chances your child will drop out of high school. Our goal is to establish healthy school habits as soon as school is introduced. Therefore, it is very important that your child attends pre-k on a regular basis. With this in mind, Knox County Schools, in partnership with the Tennessee Department of Education and the KCS School Board, has adopted a pre-k attendance policy to go into effect December, 2023 (see Policy J-120).

Excused Absences:

We understand that children may miss some days of participation due to illness. Absences due to illness will be considered an excused absence.

The following are acceptable reasons for an excused absence:

1. The child is ill;
2. Illness of an immediate family member;
3. The child contracts a communicable disease (virus or flu);
4. Death in the family;
5. Extreme weather conditions;
6. Religious Observances;
7. Military deployment of a family member, see Board Policy J-120

Required Procedures:

1. Please communicate with your child’s teacher when your child is absent.
2. A doctor’s excuse is required after three (3) consecutive days of absence.
3. If you have questions or concerns about your child’s attendance, or if you anticipate an ongoing attendance issue, please contact your child’s teacher or Beth Lackey, Early Childhood Director at 865-594-1529.
4. If a child has four (4) or more consecutive absences– or four (4) or more absences within one (1) month– the site-level administrator will contact you to determine the child’s participation status. The site-level administrator will document attempts to contact you and the outcome of those attempts and/or communications.
5. Parents are limited to 10 Parent Excuse Notes.
6. If the child misses five (5) or more days in a three (3)-month period, the site-level administrator will contact the family to develop an attendance plan.
   1. The attendance plan will be designed to help the family establish regular attendance or, if necessary, to plan for alternative services. The attendance plan will be developed by the family and appropriate school personnel, including, but not limited to; the child’s primary pre-k teacher, the site-level administrator, the IEP team (if applicable), and additional staff serving the school and family. The plan must:
      1. Identify the reasons for absences;
      2. Include a specific plan and date for establishing regular attendance or alternative services that meet the child’s educational goals;
      3. Include documentation of services and student’s outcomes to determine effectiveness of the attendance plan.
7. Every effort will be made to ensure your child has access to a quality school program. However, VPK seats are limited and are made available through a state grant. A child, who has more than five (5) unexcused absences per month, or ten (10) unexcused absences in one school year, may be terminated from the program for failure to follow the attendance policy.
8. Because the seats are limited, your child’s spot may be filled as soon as he/she is withdrawn. Future eligibility for the terminated child to re-enter the program will depend upon vacancies after a 30-day waiting period and a parent conference to establish faithful, binding Home/School Compact.

Tardies:

In order to be counted present on any and all attendance records, students in pre-k MUST attend school for a time period of at least 50% of their scheduled day. Students who attend less than half of their scheduled school day shall be recorded as absent on any and all attendance records.

Electronic Signature on Application indicates parents understand and agree to the expectations for attendance and the program qualifications for Title 1 Preschool.