Half-Day vs Full-Day Kindergarten: Which is the Best Choice for Your Child?

Parents continually have tough decisions to make regarding the care and nurture of their children. One of these decisions, if it is offered by the parent's school district, is whether or not their child should be in a half-day or full-day kindergarten program. With the increase in dual-income households, along with the increase in the percentage of children who attend preschool programs, there is a push from parents to add full-day kindergarten programs to school to ensure that parents do have a choice in this decision. Surprisingly, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, only 61% of schools offered full-day kindergarten in their most recent survey. Child Trends, a non-profit research group specializing in the study of child development, has found that the percentage of children attending full-day kindergarten has increased from 28% in 1977 to 65% in 2003, so when offered the choice, it does seem that parents are choosing to send their children to a full-day program. The question remains: does full-day kindergarten help with a child's early development?

The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study has found that children in full-day kindergarten do indeed spend this additional time in learning activities. Their study found that 68% of full-day (vs 37% of half-day) kindergarten students spent more than one hour a day on reading education. Full-day kindergarten students were also more likely to spend time on math, social studies, and science topics. Testing completed with both half-day and full-day kindergarten students found that the full-day kindergarten students had higher reading and math scores than the half-day kindergarten students had.

Child Trends reports that the long-term effects of full-day kindergarten are still largely unknown. One study reports that full-day kindergarten students do not perform better through first and second grade, while another report states that these students continue to perform better through this period. Further, Child Trends reports that another study shows that full-day kindergarten students are more likely to misbehave in class than half-day kindergarten students.

It seems that the jury is still out on whether full-day kindergarten is a better long-term preparation for children than half-day kindergarten. In the short term, it seems as though full-day kindergarten can certainly help students in their learning, which begs the question of why this is not offered in all school districts throughout the United States. According to the Education Commission of States (ECS), nine states mandate that full-day programs be offered to students and two states (West Virginia and Louisiana) mandate that children attend full-day programs. The ECS states that there is little data regarding the cost difference between half-day and full-day kindergarten, but states that this cost difference may account for the reason why some districts choose not to offer a full-day kindergarten program, even if this is requested by parents and is seen as benefit to many students' development.