Policies and Procedures
PRE-K PROGRAM YEAR
The Emanuel County Pre-K program operates for 176 days per year to coincide with the guidelines from the Georgia Pre-K Lottery, Bright from the Start Program. The required core instructional day is 6.5 hours per day, beginning at 7:45 a.m. and ending at 2:30 p.m. Parents are required to send their children the full 6.5 hours of instructional time, five days per week for the 176 days.
REASONABLE FEES
The 6.5 hour core instructional program is available to all children at no charge. Parents can choose to participate in extra-curricular activities, which require fees such as school pictures, T-shirts, field trips, and other activities outside the instructional day.
ORIENTATION
The Pre-K program is required to provide an orientation for all new parents within the first twenty days of beginning the new Pre-K year. Parents will be notified of the date of the orientation and are encouraged to attend the session to gain information about the program’s curriculum, general operating procedures, parent expectations, and major program activities and events scheduled throughout the year.
FIELD TRIPS
The Pre-K program may include local and out-of-county field trips to broaden each child’s educational experiences. Parents are encouraged to participate in field trips and will be notified in advance of dates of all major trips in order to allow for planning time away from work. Field trips are provided at no charge to children.
ARRIVAL
The Emanuel County Pre-K Program is operated from 7:45 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. each day. Staff members are on duty at 7:30 a.m. each morning to meet buses and supervise students. Please do not bring your child to the center before 7:30 a.m. Teachers and teacher assistants report to work at 7:30 a.m. Students are expected to be in their classrooms by 7:50 a.m. and picked up at 2:45 p.m., unless they ride school system buses, which pick them up by 3:00. Children who ride the Pre-K bus are picked up between 6:45 and 7:45 each morning and transported home between 2:15 and 3:45 in the afternoons, depending on the route schedule developed at the beginning of each year.
DISMISSAL
The first bus departs the Pre-K Center at 2:50 p.m. Parents are allowed to pick children up between 2:00 and 3:00 p.m. when the Pre-K day is over. If a parent is not present to retrieve their child off of the bus, they will be returned to the school. If it is necessary for a child to leave Pre-K before 2:00 p.m., he/she must be signed out in the office by the parent/guardian or other adult designated on the information sheets on file in the office before the teacher is notified to dismiss the child.
BUS REQUIREMENTS
The Pre-K bus transports students in the immediate area who do not have older siblings who ride regular route school buses. All other students are transported on buses provided by Emanuel County schools. All buses are equipped with a video/audio monitoring system. Some school sites are equipped with a video monitoring system. You are hereby notified you may be recorded at any time while on school property. All Pre-K students who ride school buses are expected to behave appropriately and according to the guidelines established by the Emanuel County School System. Failure to abide by established rules and repeated misbehavior can result in suspension from bus privileges. Please help your Pre-K child develop an appreciation for this valuable resource by helping us enforce appropriate and acceptable behavior on the buses. Buses stop at designated stops only. Please take your child to the bus stop and meet him/her each afternoon.
The Pre-K bus driver will not leave a child at a house unless there is an adult there to receive the child. All bus drivers must see an adult before dropping off the child. Children will be brought back to the Pre-K Center if no adult is at home when the bus arrives. If a child is brought back to the center 3 times in the afternoons due to the parent(s) not being home as required, the child will be suspended from bus privileges for 5 days. Repeated incidents can result in a referral to the Department of Family and Children Services.
BUS CHANGES
Parents are required to send a written note to the child’s teacher or send an email to elcoffice@emanuel.k12.ga.us prior to a bus change taking place. The note/email must contain the 911 address, bus number (if known), and name of responsible adult at the address. Written requests must be received by the teacher in the morning in order for necessary paper work to be completed before the afternoon bus route. All changes must be received by 1:30 p.m. When sending an email, you need to make a follow-up phone call to the center to ensure someone received the information. Phone calls requesting bus changes will no longer be accepted due to security purposes. Under no circumstances will a bus change be made without a written note from the parent, email, or in person by a parent or designated emergency contact.
BOOK BAGS
Each Pre-K child needs a book bag for teachers to send materials and weekly letters and other program information to parents. Please check your child’s book bag daily.