United Way celebrating 20 years of kindergarten readiness work across five counties
PITTSBURGH (Nov. 27, 2025) – For adults with kindergarteners starting a new school year in 2025, it may be difficult to imagine putting little ones on the bus for their first day of kindergarten without registering with the school district first. Ten years ago, however, when Jesse Sprajcar first started working at United Way as an education program manager, there were many kindergarteners who got off the bus for the first day of school not only unregistered but also without identification or emergency contact information. Things have changed.
Now, as United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania’s senior director of regional impact, Sprajcar is part of a team working to bridge the gap across early childhood programs, school districts and parents to create a connected, integrated pathway that launches the youngest learners to success in school and life.
This year, United Way is recognizing more than 20 years of early childhood education work across Armstrong, Butler, Fayette and Westmoreland counties, and 15 years in Allegheny County. A large part of this work has been focused on boosting early and on-time kindergarten enrollment, with measurable results. But Sprajcar explained the larger goal is bringing pre-K providers, kindergarten teachers, parents and guardians together well before the first day of kindergarten, to build the best possible learning environment.
“As a classroom teacher, you’ve got 20+ kids coming into your class and some of them can identify all their letters, write their names, know some sight words — and they’re sitting next to child who maybe had no pre-K experience and doesn’t know any letters. You have all those factors at play and you’re trying to get all those kids reading by the end of the year,” Sprajcar said.
“That’s why kindergarten readiness is so important, because if you can bring families into the school for transition events in the spring, you can get resources to adults, and they’ll know what they need to work on over the summer with their kids before the start of school. Kids can get accustomed to the school building and teachers can start putting supports in place.”
United Way’s early kindergarten readiness work started two decades ago with grants of a few thousand dollars to a handful of school districts in Westmoreland County and efforts to connect pre-K and early childhood centers with K-12 school districts. At the time, the organization that’s now United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania was four separate United Ways: of Allegheny, Armstrong, Butler and Westmoreland counties, all united in the belief that kindergarten readiness is critically important for young people in our region — and that there was more that could be done to ensure access. Their work, like their organizations, has since converged and achieved great outcomes for our youngest learners. United Way now offers kindergarten transition grants totaling $85,500 annually to 74 school districts in Allegheny, Armstrong, Butler, Fayette and Westmoreland counties.
Building an infrastructure for readiness: United Way’s kindergarten readiness work has expanded and grown more robust in several ways across the region, including through distribution of the Education Improvement Tax Credit (EITC), a program that allows companies to allocate some of their tax credits to nonprofits. United Way’s EITC-funded programs include Raising Readers, Volunteer Readers and pre-K scholarships. Raising Readers clubs, run mostly in Westmoreland, help adults select quality books for their kids. The Volunteer Readers program in Allegheny, Westmoreland and Butler counties brings volunteer readers into classrooms. EITC funding also enables United Way to award scholarships to pre-K centers in Butler, Fayette and Westmoreland, making it possible for more families to enroll their children in high-quality pre-K programs. This year, United Way awarded $16,000 in scholarships to centers to support 14 families.
In response to feedback from kindergarten transition teams in Westmoreland, Fayette and Butler counties, United Way has also supplied funding for phonemic awareness curriculum to pre-K and kindergarten classrooms.
Hi5! history and Impact: The Hi5! Partnership first launched in 2010 in response to a trend of low on-time kindergarten enrollment across Allegheny County school districts. United Way, Trying Together and the Allegheny Intermediate Unit (AIU), with early financial support from The Heinz Endowments and The Grable Foundation, formed an advisory committee and encouraged school districts to develop transition plans and transition teams to help more families register for kindergarten before the first day of school. Motivated by funding from United Way, some schools developed innovative tactics like advertising on-time registration on billboards and pizza boxes. Others started offering summer engagement events and readiness camps to get early learners and their families involved before the first day of school, dramatically reducing first-day jitters and tears both for adults and children entering kindergarten.
According to Trying Together, in 2010 on-time registration rates varied by district across Allegheny County but could be as low as 13%, demonstrating a clear need for the Hi5! program’s work within the county. United Way and Trying Together have collected on-time kindergarten enrollment (the number of kindergarteners enrolled by the first day of school) from Allegheny County school districts every year as part of the kindergarten transition grant process. As of the 2023-24 school year, Allegheny County’s average on-time kindergarten enrollment was 95%.
Hi5! is a partnership between United Way, Trying Together and the AIU that serves all 43 school districts in Allegheny County. Every year, school districts submit kindergarten transition plans to United Way, outlining how they plan to promote early kindergarten registration for the upcoming school year through activities, advertising, transition teams and more. Strategies that United Way and its partners created and implemented in 2010 to boost early enrollment are now, 15 years later, the norm in Allegheny County. Districts receive a $500 grant from United Way, distributed by the AIU, to support their kindergarten transition plans. Hi5! refers to the need to build awareness among families that age 5 is when it’s time to register a child for kindergarten.
The Hi5! partnership also works to support connections among early learning providers and school districts and promotes networking and resource sharing between Allegheny County school districts. Trying Together hosts Coffee & Conversations events in the spring and fall for teachers and administrators to connect and share their knowledge and experiences with kindergarten transition. The series also invites experts to share and lead conversations around relevant themes.
Why early registration? Entering kindergarten is a pivotal milestone in a child’s educational journey. For children who did not receive, or have access to, early intervention, kindergarten is the first time they can be evaluated for developmental disabilities. It’s also many five-year old’s first introduction to a structured classroom setting. According to research collected by Trying Together, kindergarten transition activities have been shown to not only boost enrollment but make it easier for kids to enjoy school and get excited about learning. Kindergarten readiness has also been shown to correlate positively to a variety of lifelong outcomes, from increased self-confidence and executive function skills such as emotional regulation, to achievement across a young person’s academic lifetime.
“It’s all about setting students up for success. Young learners are more likely to have a great first day of kindergarten and beyond if they’ve had early opportunities to meet their teachers and get acclimated to the school environment,” said United Way’s Director of Building for Success in School and Life Ana Kay Yaghoubian.
Early enrollment is also about helping school districts best prepare to meet students’ needs.
“When schools know how many kindergarteners to expect on the first day of school, and where those students are at in their academic journey, they know what resources are needed to level the playing field and make sure everyone can reach their full potential,” Yaghoubian said.