These IPS schools will offer general and special education pre-K classes this year

Indianapolis Star
Updated ·2 min read

Indianapolis Public Schools has announced the five sites where pre-K classes are being added this school year, with each of the four new enrollment zones getting at least one new pre-K location.

As part of the district’s expansive Rebuilding Stronger plan, officials are trying to provide more pre-K options closer to families' homes.

In addition, seven schools will offer special education pre-K seats for the 2023-24 school year, an increase from the four schools offering them last school year.

For the 2023-24 school year, there will be 30 pre-K classrooms across the district, which is one more than the previous year, but more of the classes are spread out across the district, Michelle Jackson, IPS’s executive director of teaching and learning, told the school board at a recent meeting.

IPS will use a little more than $67,000 in pandemic relief money to refresh pre-K materials that go toward helping children refine their fine and gross motor skills.

As of last week the district has 141 open pre-K seats out of nearly 700 general pre-K seats that IPS will have.

According to Enroll Indy's most recent open-seat report, some of IPS's most sought-after schools, like CFI School 27 and the Butler Lab schools, have few open pre-K seats left.

Here are the schools that will have pre-K classes for the 2023-24 school year:

Zone 1

  • Ernie Pyle School 90

  • Global Preparatory Academy at Riverside School 44

  • Meredith Nicholson School 96

  • Butler Lab at School 60

  • Clarence Farrington School 61

  • George Washington Carver School 87

  • The PATH School at Stephen Foster 67

  • Carl Wilde School 79 (new)

Zone 2

  • Charles Warren Fairbanks School 105 (new)

  • Riley School of the Arts at School 43

  • Phalen Leadership Academy at Louis B. Russell School 48

  • Butler Lab at School 55

  • Rousseau McClellan School 91

  • Robert Lee Frost School 106

Zone 3

  • James Russell Lowell School 51

  • Brookside School 54 (new)

  • Near Eastside Innovation School Corp at Washington Irving 14

  • Sankofa School of Success at Arlington Woods School 99

  • Center for Inquiry at School 27

Zone 4

  • Eleanor Skillen School 34

  • James A. Garfield School 31 (new)

  • William McKinley School 39

  • Daniel Webster School 46 (new)

  • Ralph Waldo Emerson School 58

Sites with special education pre-K seats for 2023-24

  • Clarence Farrington School 61 (new)

  • PATH School at Stephen Foster School 67

  • Carl Wilde School 79 (new)

  • James Whitcomb Riley School 43 (new)

  • Washington Irving School 14 (new)

  • CFI School 27 (language class)

  • Eleanor Skillen School 34 (new)

Contact the reporter at 317-618-5807 or CBeck@gannett.com.

This story is made possible by Report for America and Glick Philanthropies. As part of its work in Marion County, Glick Philanthropies partners with organizations focused on closing access and achievement gaps in education.

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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IPS pre-K: These schools will offer general, special education seats