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In NJ it's different in each district. All towns are supposed to have all day Kindergarten but some still don't. Only the poorest seem to have free preschool for all. If a child has a delay, preschool is free. The remaining spots are filled by lottery and you have to pay for it.
In my district, half day kindergarten is paid through the regular school budget. Full day kindergarten doesn't fall under the same budget so there is an income based charge. And pre-school is not covered by the budget at all, and is funded via tuition payments, just like a private preschool. Some parents appreciate the chance to have their child get used to the school, or they may have older children in the same school so it makes life much simpler to have them all in the same location.
But I never once thought to resent that I might need to pay for a service that just happens to be provided at the school, any more than the fact that I've also paid for before and afterschool care or summer camp programs that were also located at the school.
Preschool is not free here unless you are low income. That is probably why OP cousin gets free preschool & she doesn’t. Is the household income significantly different? My nephew has speech delay but he wasn’t bad enough to qualify for free preschool. So my brother has to pay for it. My other friend had <50k income with her first and going free preschool. But by the time her second kid was old enough for school their income went up to 80k and now they have to pay.
Kindergarden as far as I know is free public education
In NJ it's different in each district. All towns are supposed to have all day Kindergarten but some still don't. Only the poorest seem to have free preschool for all. If a child has a delay, preschool is free. The remaining spots are filled by lottery and you have to pay for it.
It’s similar where I am, except pre-k is generally offered in both lower income and middle income districts. The wealthy districts don’t because the residents typically send their kids to private pre-k programs. Pre-k for kids with special needs is handled separately, because is falls under a different budget.
How old are you? I'd venture to guess things have changed since then.
I'm of an age where everyone else my age went to pre-school. And none of my siblings went either. All have college diplomas, two have Masters, one is going for a Doctorate.
My youngest child went to 4 year old preschool at the public school in Oklahoma. It was free and only four hours a day. Not all of the schools offered it. It opened up the year my daughter was eligible. She was also allowed to ride the bus to school with my other two kids and I picked her up at lunch. It was a pretty sweet deal. I only did it to get her used to school. Our school was first come first serve. That meant we met a lot of parents waiting in line to sign up at 2 am. It saved me several hundred dollars and my daughter had an awesome and energetic teacher.
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