NASHVILLE, Tenn. - It happens every year; parents wait until the last minute to register their children for school, but this year a partnership is keeping parents on tracks and students in school on time.
Inside East Nashville's Warner Enhanced Option School, parents and students are truly getting a head start to the school year.
With the start of school less than a month away, Principal Lori Flemming is seeing a trend continue.
"Typically the first day of school is very challenging in the fact that many of our families wait to register on the first day of school," said Flemming.
As of Tuesday morning, only 30 of an expected 100 kindergartners had been registered.
So after much planning, this kindergarten registration event was created in hopes of breaking down any possible barriers preventing kids from starting school on time.
"Removing the barriers to having their health and immunizations records up to date; removing some of the barriers about what is required in order to register, but going a step beyond and saying, 'Now that you've done the requirements, let's help you feel welcomed and safe and supported to this environment,'" said Robin Veenstra-Vanderweele with the Martha O'Bryan Center.
With help from Martha O'Bryan, Vanderbilt, Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) and United Neighborhood Health Centers, the Nashville Promise Neighbor Program is helping families like Nicolette Tucker's, who says this would have been great when she first started registering her kids.
She says, "By it being my first time, it was kind of frustrating because you had to have so much. But like now, it's easy for me."
She says she was one of those parents who didn't know exactly what to do or what she needed, so her child started school late.
"The health department didn't send over his shot records over to the school, so I had to get all that taken care of, but he could not come back to school until that was taken care of," said Tucker.
Parents were also able to meet teachers, get free books and school uniforms, and school supplies were available in a gift bag.
"We're hoping to make the connections between home and school strengthened, so that every child that enters kindergarten in the Promise Neighborhood in East Nashville is ready on day one," said Veestra-Vanderweele.
Most MNPS schools are open for registration Monday - Friday from 9 p.m. until 3 p.m.
The kindergarten registration event is part of a pilot program. A similar event was also held at Kirkpatrick Elementary and officials hope to expand it to all schools in East Nashville.
Some 20 students were registered for school during the kindergarten registration event.
