NEW ULM – Kids Connection and Little Kids Connection (KC/LKC) coordinator Lisa Bauman and 10-year employee Karrie Borchert outlined some current and future changes and necessary improvements during the School Board Study Session Thursday.

KC is school-based child care that currently covers grades K-6. LKC covers 3- and 4-year-old pre-K students.

KC will be dropping the eligibility for fifth and sixth graders starting next school year. Bauman said this comes from Brown County Guidelines, which state that kids from 8 to 10 years old can stay at home for up to three hours by themselves.

Borchert said she was a big proponent of this change. She said combining middle schoolers with elementary schoolers has created some unfortunate results.

“You’re bringing the [fifth and sixth graders] to our K through fours and they’re bringing a lot of things they’re learning from the seventh and eighth graders that aren’t appropriate for our fourth, third, second, and kindergarteners,” she said.

Borchert said parents of older kids are using the program for extra socialization time, instead of the intended use as child care for parents.

For LKC, Bauman said they will change from a flat rate to a block system starting next school year. Previously, parents had to pay for the whole week’s slate, regardless of how much or little they were using LKC. Now they can enroll their child in the block that fits their needs.

Block A runs from 6:30 to 8 a.m., Block B from 6:30 a.m. to 12 p.m., Block C from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Block D from 3-5:30 p.m., and Block E from 6:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Blocks A and D cost $9, Blocks B and C cost $22, and Block E costs $35.

Certain blocks will only be eligible on certain days. For 3-year-olds, Monday and Friday will fall under Block E. Mornings Tuesday through Thursday will be eligible for Blocks A and C, and afternoons eligible for Blocks B and D.

For 4-year-olds, only Friday would fall under Block E. Monday would be eligible for Blocks A and C in the mornings and Blocks B and D in the afternoons.

Bauman said a full-day Block E was necessary on days when there isn’t pre-school for the given age group. She said the system will be adopted to help make LKC more accessible for parents.

“Brown County Family Services has been reaching out quite often since I took over in 2021 asking if we would take county assistance again,” she said. “After researching what it costs to keep all the staff trained and our influx of staff coming and going, it didn’t make sense for us. I researched other referral programs within Minnesota and stumbled across this block format.”

Moving forward, Bauman said communication is the most important thing between KC/LKC and the school district. She said if a student has a bad day at school, KC/LKC are often left unaware.

“Being communicated that information of ‘It was a tough day, this is what happened,'” Bauman said. “That allows us to say ‘You’ll sit in the hallway at a calming desk. Here are some fidgets, coloring.’ Then we can walk them through and send them outside once they’re ready. If we don’t know and they go outside, they terrorize and we have a bigger issue.”