Year Round Enrollment

TK is a school year program only. This means you will have to find care over summer, fall break, winter break, early spring break, late spring break plus the numerous teacher development days throughout the year. That amounts to 180 school days per year. You need to either miss work or pay an enrichment program for the missing days.

At Elan, we go all year. We take the normal holidays and we are off for a week over Christmas week. We are open an average of 245 days per year, that's 65 more school days where you don't have to find someone to care for your child.

Full Day Program

TK hours vary by School in the Milpitas Unified School District but range from 8:45am-11:45am up to 8:00am-2:06am. You will need to pay for after school care.

Elan Preschool runs from 8am to 6pm with options for shorter days. So we can care for your children the entire time you are at work.

It will be cheaper to move my child to TK when it's full day. Right now, it's too short…- LA County Parent ^*

Cost

A private preschool like Elan Preschool is certainly not free. It is an expensive operation to run which is why the tax funded options save money with bigger class sizes and fewer enrichments.

But Transitional Kindergarten is also not free. You must pay for before and after school care, summer camps, spring, fall and winter break camps. A frugal shopper will pay at least $10,500 per year. $15,000 and up will get you more enrichment programs over the summer.

Custom Program vs One-Size-Fits-All

Public schools are a one-size-fits-all factory model of education. It is baked into their DNA. So it is very easy for your child to get lost in the group.

This is simply not possible at Elan. At Elan each student has a program that works for them and each child moves at their own pace. We address each child as a full individual to maximize their potential.

I think I would stay in child care because I still feel like they are too young for kindergarten.- Kern County Parent ^*

Out here with the schools in my county, you’re not even allowed to drop your kids off at the classroom. You just send them through the gate, and they have to go out on their own—and they're preschoolers, kindergarteners. That doesn't make me feel safe.- Humboldt County Parent ^*

Smaller Class Sizes

TK ratios are 10:1 but class sizes can be as large as 20 to 23 with a single teacher plus teacher's aides to satisfy that 10:1 ratio.

The classes at Elan are no larger than 12. We also have two assistant teachers that float between classrooms as needed. That makes our ratio 1:8¼ at full capacity and 75% of our staff are fully qualified teachers.

Superior Academics and Development

Public schools have a lower expectation for the children. They do not believe many children can be taught to read at younger ages, so they do not try even for those that can. It's a lowest common denominator mentality. Milpitas Unified Elementary Schools have a reading proficiency score of 63% - 70% (depending on source) which is actually well above the state average.

The reading proficiency for our graduates is 100% for Kindergarten expectations and most are at First Grade proficiency.

We believe all students can learn to read at 4 years old, ride a two wheeled bike at 3 or 4, can count to 100 at 4 and so on. Our older 4s and younger 5s are reading each other books and helping the younger ones to read! The same goes for writing, social/emotional development, math, problem solving and others. We believe that they can do much more and so we bring it out of them as a perfectly normal, everyday thing.

I'm concerned about the quality of care in public schools for TK… It's a bigger class size, and I'm not sure my child will get the attention they need.- LA County Parent ^*