SEATTLE — Washington’s largest charter-school chain misappropriated state funds by enrolling dozens of 4-year-olds in kindergarten and must repay about $790,000, according to the state’s charter school oversight agency.
In Washington, children must be age 5 by Aug. 31 to start kindergarten. Impact Public Schools asked the state Charter School Commission in 2020 for permission to create a state-funded transitional kindergarten program for children who lack high-quality early learning opportunities, or who are determined to lack the skills needed for kindergarten.
The commission voted that transitional kindergarten could begin no earlier than 2021 in the charter schools it oversees because it needed to develop evaluation measures and regulations. It also needed to resolve a legal conflict: To qualify for state transitional kindergarten funding, students must first be assessed to show need. However, state law bars charter schools from that kind of screening prior to enrollment in order to prevent charters from selecting higher-achieving students.
In fall 2020, state officials discovered that Impact had enrolled 4-year-olds anyway, saying all were able to skip straight to kindergarten.
