NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Megan Hett with Haven USD 312 said they are going to expand their childcare offerings in the coming 2024-2025 school year.
"Our target date is July 1," Hett said. "We hope to add a two year old room in Yoder. That will allow us to move some of our kids from Haven over there. It also helps us reduce the age range in each of our classrooms. Right now, in our toddler room, we've got kids from 12 months all the way to 36 months. You can imagine, that creates some challenges. They are very different developmentally."
The average age toilet training begins in the United States is between 2 and 3 years of age.
"That's one of the things our providers work on is, getting those kids potty trained, ideally by the time they are three and moving into the pre-K program," Hett said. "We're looking at potentially adding some bathrooms into classrooms out there at Yoder to aid in that, so that we're not constantly running down the hallway."
Until they can get the plumbing run to the rooms, they plan to place the twos right next to the existing restroom access. At Haven, they're looking to repurpose some rooms to have more slots for infants and under 2 toddlers.
"We're working on converting an office space into another infant room," Hett said. "We know that is the biggest need in our county is slots for infants. We'll be able to take a few more infants there. Reducing that toddler room down to just one year olds, 12 to 24 months, that actually increases the amount of kids that we can serve in that space, because of the reduction in age range."
There will also be some RCEC Pre-K classrooms in Yoder, as well, to allow some special needs Pre-K students to be able to travel a lesser distance to class.
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