Kindergarten Readiness Collaborative
2026-2027 KRC Cohort
The interest form to join Future Ready Five’s 2026-27 Kindergarten Readiness Collaborative Cohort is now closed.
Join our mailing list to receive updates about future KRC cohorts, application windows, professional development opportunities, and family engagement resources.
2026-2027 KRC Cohort
The interest form to join Future Ready Five’s 2026-27 Kindergarten Readiness Collaborative Cohort is now closed.
Join our mailing list to receive updates about future KRC cohorts, application windows, professional development opportunities, and family engagement resources.
About the Kindergarten Readiness Collaborative Program
In our Kindergarten Readiness Collaborative (KRC) program, we partner with early childcare learning centers; assessing each of their children’s individual needs, providing training and support for their dedicated teachers and staff, and offering virtual workshops for the parents, all centered around building foundational literacy skills. In this way, we are all working together, or collaborating, to ensure that every child in our program is kindergarten ready.
What We Offer
Child Care Centers
Since we know that 90% of a child’s brain has formed by the age of five, it all starts with the care and attention they receive from you!
We provide incentives to Centers & Directors for Enrollment, Assessment Completion, and Child Attendance.
We also provide funding for substitute teachers to cover during the teacher workshops.
Teachers
Whether you are a first year teacher or seasoned professional, we are here to support you in your journey to become the best you can be!
We provide incentives to Teachers for Workshop Participation, Formative Assessments, and Classroom Coaching.
We also offer other professional development opportunities and certifications.
Parents & Guardians
If your child is currently enrolled in one of our participating early childcare centers or preschools, you may be elligible for participating in our program!
We provide incentives to the Parents & Guardians for Assessments, attending Virtual Education Workshops, your child’s attendance, and more!
Our Curriculum
Heggerty®
The Heggerty® Phonemic Awareness Pre-K curriculum is a widely used and trusted daily program focused on developing essential phonemic awareness skills through short, engaging lessons that help children learn to hear and manipulate sounds in words.
Read It Again!®
The Read It Again!® Social-Emotional curriculum was created locally by The Ohio State University Crane Center for Early Childhood Reasearch and Policy, and designed to develop and strengthen young children’s early foundations in language and literacy and social-emotional skills.
Khan Academy Kids®
Every child enrolled in our KRC cohort gains access to the Khan Academy Kids® educational app—provided through tablets available at your child’s center. This app engages children in core subjects such as early literacy, reading, writing, language, and math. Our team and the child’s teacher will monitor each child’s progress, allowing us to personalize their learning journey to meet their unique needs.
Our State Regulation Aligned Screening Tools
BRIGANCE®
The BRIGANCE® screener is a widely used early childhood assessment tool designed to evaluate the developmental skills of children from birth through age 5. It is used to identify children’s strengths and areas where they may need additional support in areas like language, motor skills, social-emotional development, and cognitive abilities. The tool provides valuable insights that can guide targeted interventions and support, ensuring children are on track for successful learning experiences as they enter kindergarten.
The Reading House®
The Reading House® screener is a specialized assessment tool designed to evaluate early literacy skills in young children, helping educators identify areas where they may need additional support. The screener focuses on key foundational skills such as letter recognition, phonemic awareness, and early vocabulary development. By providing a snapshot of a child’s literacy skills, the The Reading House® screener helps guide targeted interventions and ensures that children are on the right path to becoming confident readers as they enter kindergarten.
Our staff at Future Ready Five will administer the BRIGANCE® and The Reading House® screeners during the months of September, October, and May. We will then be able to use those scores to identify the children who are on track for passing the Ohio Kindergarten Readiness Assessment (KRA), or who may need further assistance from our KRC Coordinators.
Earn Your Child Development Associate (CDA) Credentials for FREE!
During both Fall and Spring terms, 20 teachers/staff currently involved in the Kindergarten Readiness Collaborative are elligible to enroll in the CDA program through Columbus State Community College. This program consists of three courses, which are spread out over three terms, one course per term. Each term lasts about 8-10 weeks and requires participants to meet once per week, including virtual and in-person, from 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM. Future Ready Five covers the full cost associated with the course, including tuition and books/materials.
For more information, and to enroll, please contact Dr. Vanisa Turney at vanisa.turney@futurereadyfive.org
How to Apply
The enrollment window for Early Childcare and Preschool Centers for the 2025-2026 Kindergarten Readiness Collaborative is May 5th through July 31st. To receive an alert when the application goes live, be sure to fill out the interest form by Clicking Here. Spots are limited and do fill up quickly.
1. What age does a child need to be to enroll in the Kindergarten Readiness Collaborative?
At this time we are currently only enrolling children that are between the ages of 3 to 5 years old. Children must be 3 years old by September 30th, 2025. Additionally, children aged 4 or 5 cannot participate if they will be attending kindergarten in the Fall of 2025.
2. Are teachers required to attend all of the in-person workshops?
Your teachers or staff are required to attend at least 80% of the in-person workshops and complete the required tasks in order to receive compensation and move on to the next year of the cohort.
3. What is the Ohio KRA-R and why is it important?
The Ohio KRA-R, or Kindergarten Readiness Assessment Revised, is the official standardized assessment tool used by the state of Ohio on every child who enters kindergarten to determine their level of preparedness. Currently in Central Ohio, only 35% of children are scoring kindergarten-ready, and we know that when a child lacks the foundational skills needed when they enter school, it makes it even harder for them to catch up to their peers, and is proven to have a lasting negative impact on their future.
4. My child is not currently enrolled in a childcare or preschool program. Can I still apply?
At this time we are currently only partnering with early childcare and preschool programs in our Kindergarten Readiness Collaborative, but we have hopes to expand in the next few years and open our cohort to children not enrolled in pre-k programs.
What Our Participants are Saying
