About Our Program

The Knox County Schools Voluntary Pre-K program is funded through a grant from the Tennessee Department of Education. The focus is to enroll students in the underserved population, which includes children identified as “at-risk.” At-risk factors include family income, foster care, homelessness, and students who qualify for free/reduced lunch. Children must be four years of age on or before August 15th of the current year. If there are spots available after the 30th day of school, students who turned three years of age on or before August 15th may be accepted into the Voluntary Pre-K program.

Since the program is grant-funded, families must meet the income eligibility for acceptance. If there are spots available after the 30th day of school, students who do not meet income eligibility but have other risk factors, such as a disability or IEP, limited English proficiency, and students in custody of someone other than the parent may be admitted to the program. Admittance is not guaranteed, and these spots are limited. Families will be notified if there is availability.

Proof of Income is required for acceptance into Voluntary Pre K.  Proof of income may be a W-2, a pay stub, or a SNAP/TANF award letter which includes the case number. 

Proof of Residency is required for acceptance into Voluntary Pre K.  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. 

Income Eligibility Information

This chart is to be used when reviewing the Pre-K Income Eligibility application to determine if family meets income qualifications for “economically disadvantaged.” Families making at or below the annual income amount, based on household size, meet the income eligibility criteria for participation in the Voluntary Pre-K program for the 2025-2026 school year. Verification must include total income of all household family members. Meeting income eligibility requirements does not guarantee acceptance into the Voluntary Pre-K program due to limited space and the possibility of more students applying than seats available.

Daily Schedule

All Voluntary Pre-K programs operate on a 6-hour school day. Start and end times vary per school. Transportation is not provided for Voluntary Pre-K 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 effective 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 Voluntary Pre-K.