Utah Law 53A-1a-1001 – UPSTART
Utah Preparing Students Today for a Rewarding Tomorrow (UPSTART) is a pilot project established by the Utah State Legislature that uses a home-based education technology approach to develop the school readiness skills of preschool children. The program concentrates on preschool students prior to their Kindergarten experience. The program is an in-home, technology delivered kindergarten readiness program that is designed to give Utah four-year-olds an individualized reading, mathematics, and science curriculum with a focus on reading. Children participate in the program the year before they attend kindergarten. All Utah children are eligible to participate but the program but legislation wants to make sure low income families and non-native English speaking families have priority.
In its 7th year, the implementation contractor, Waterford Institute continues to provide our pre-K students with adaptive lessons, digital curriculum, songs, and activities to deliver its early literacy content. Children are encouraged to use the UPSTART program for 15 minutes a day, 5 days a week. Families are provided with parental resources and technical support from Waterford customer service representatives. In Garfield County, our Waterford representative is Melinda Dalton. Please call her at 435-418-0110 or Melinda.dalton@garfk12.org.
Traditionally, preschool programs were not funded for all populations of children but with the UPSTART legislation, all students and families can take advantage of the software based education for four and five-year-old students. To make an account and start today, go to http://www.waterfordupstart.org/
For qualifying students, the program supplies the internet and a computer if needed. GCSD also uses the Waterford software for grades K-2. Watch for more information on that in the future.
Tracy Davis, Superintendent – Garfield County School District
