If you stick around Julie Grubb's kindergarten classroom long enough, she will break down what a school year looks like.
"I always joke that I teach preschool for the first half of the year, and then we move on to kindergarten," Grubb said. "It's interesting because we have such diversity of kids here with cultures and ethnicity, but also with abilities."
Grubb, a kindergarten teacher at Miami Elementary School, said expectations for kindergarten have changed. As standards have increased, Indiana lawmakers are grappling with key questions: Should the state fund pre-kindergarten programs and, if so, by how much? Should all-day kindergarten be a requirement?
It was a hot topic in last year's gubernatorial race. Though Gov. Eric Holcomb has proposed an expansion of state-funded pre-kindergarten, the current program is offered in only five counties in Indiana: Vanderburgh, Marion, Lake, Allen and Jackson.
In addition to living in one of the five eligible counties, the household income of the child must be in the 127 percentile of the federal poverty level or lower, meaning a single mother of one child couldn't make more than $20,231 a year.
It's an inconsistent approach that many educators say needs to be rethought.
Providing a foundation
According to the National Institute for Early Education Research, of the 42 states with a state funded pre-K system only 7 served more than 50 percent of 4-year-olds in the state in 2015. In Indiana, 2,400 children are served under the pilot program. Grubb is among those calling for Tippecanoe to be added to the counties