State officials have unveiled 44 new public preschools slated to open this school year, which includes the first two Hawaiian language classrooms under the Ready Keiki initiative.
For years, advocates have been pushing for more preschool access and Hawaiian immersion, or kaiapuni schools, throughout the state.
The Hawai‘i Department of Education has 22 non-charter kaiapuni schools, which started in the 1980s. These schools introduced English in the fifth grade.
The Hawaiian language pre-K classrooms will be at Lāna‘i High and Elementary School, and Blanche Pope Elementary School in Waimānalo on Oʻahu. They will have nearly 40 seats for keiki.
Last Friday, Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke said there's discussion underway to create a pre-K charter classroom at the ʻImiloa Astronomy Center in Hilo.
“This is not just about preschools, but also encouraging more students to go out into the Hawaiian immersion pathway because we're going to need a lot of Hawaiian language teachers,” she said during a news conference.
The statewide plan aims to create 400 classrooms for 3 and 4-year-olds by 2032.
The newly introduced classrooms will add more than 800 seats for keiki, totaling over 1,700 seats in Hawai‘i. They are slated to be open by next month.
