The age of entry for kindergartners is going up across the state, while junior kindergarten classes are being eliminated. That’s creating a gap. The Hawaii Department of Education says as many as 5,000 students won’t have a place to go.
The need for early education is especially strained on the Waianae coast, where preschool capacity is already over 90%. But, as HPR’s Molly Solomon reports, a planned learning center in M?`ili is hoping to fill that need.