Senator’s Visit Kicks Off Pre-K Week at CTC

State leaders this week have and will be visiting pre-kindergarten programs across Georgia as part of Voices for Georgia’s Children 2011 Pre-K Week.

As part of the weeklong initiative, officials are slated to visit a Pre-K center in their district, meet teachers and parents and read to children. Monday saw State Sen. Bill Heath, R-Bremen, visit the to tour its Child Development Lab.

The Child Development Lab is a lab school designed to provide early childhood care and education students with the hands-on experience with young children they need to integrate their classroom knowledge with real-life experience, according to Lead Instructor Frances Carlson. The lab has two classrooms: one family bonded class which has mixed ages of children age 2 ½ to 4 years old, and one Georgia Pre-K classroom with 4 year olds. The total enrollment for the lab is 34 children; it is staffed by a lab coordinator and four full-time teachers.

Chattahoochee Technical College offers degree, diploma and certificate in early childhood care and education at four of its eight campuses, including Marietta, North Metro, Paulding and Woodstock.

Georgia was the first state to offer universal Pre-K to its residents in 1993. Since then, more than one million students have passed through the doors of the Georgia Pre-K Program and 3,909 Pre-K classes are currently in operation across the state.

See the attached video to learn more about Heath’s visit and the Georgia Pre-K Program.