The Fayette Education Foundation continues its effort to see more and more books in the households of young learners. The Lexington education advocacy group is working with Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. In six months, the Foundation distributed more than 25,000 books to children from birth to age five in all Fayette County zip codes. Fayette Education Foundation Executive Director Carrie Boling said free high-quality books are sent out to children monthly.
“We want to do whatever we can to support families and support our students before they get into school. Like I mentioned they are started school behind and test scores were just released and we tend to point fingers at our schools but the schools are playing catchup,” said Boling.
Boling said the last kindergarten readiness scores in Fayette County revealed 42% of students were prepared. The Foundation director says the state legislature a few years back decided to pay half the cost of sponsoring a child for the book program.
Realizing it’s one thing to receive an age-appropriate book each month and another to have it read, Boling noted just getting books in the home is a positive step.
“There’s data out there that shows just having the books in the home where they can touch and feel and look and start to explore…that that definitely makes a difference,” said Boling.
Boling said the Family University program gets underway the end of the month. It’s aimed at helping parents engage in their children’s education.
To enroll your child in the free book program, visit https://imaginationlibrary.com/usa/affiliate/KYFAYETTE/.
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