The Bennington-Rutland Supervisory Union is committed to serving children and their families in a variety of ways to access high quality Early Education services. The BRSU has a combination of School-Based preschool programs and Community-Based preschool partnerships.

Universal prekindergarten (UPK) is for children that have turned three or four years old by September 1, or are five years old and not yet enrolled in kindergarten.  

Access to Publicly Funded Prekindergarten

Per Title 16 § 829(b), UPK will be for no fewer than ten hours per week for 35 weeks annually for each eligible child whom a parent or guardian wishes to enroll in an available, prequalified program operated by a public school or a private provider.  The Taconic and Green Regional School District (T&G) pays for an additional 10 hours of UPK programming at a private preschool provider, for a total of 20 hours of UPK programming weekly, up to 35 weeks annually. 

Taconic and Green residents are eligible to apply to the UPK programs at the Manchester Elementary Middle School (MEMS) and Currier Memorial School (Currier).  Non-residents are not eligible to apply at MEMS and Currier for UPK.  

Residents of the Mettawee School District (MSD) are eligible to apply to the UPK program at the Mettawee Community School.  Non-residents are not eligible to apply at the Mettawee Community School for UPK.

Residents of T&G or Mettawee School District towns are not guaranteed enrollment in a district UPK program. If more than the allowable number of students request to enroll in the MEMS, Currier, or Mettawee UPK programs, the administration will implement a nondiscriminatory lottery system for determining which students will be accepted. The remaining students will be added to a waitlist using the same lottery system.

Accepted students will be notified and given a deadline to return a contract and any required enrollment paperwork.  If a family misses the deadline, they will be removed from the accepted list and the person at the top of the wait-list will be offered a contract.

Families can also choose to send their child to a pre-qualified private provider. T&G and Winhall students who are four years old by September 1, can receive up to twenty hours per week for 35 weeks of UPK services.

School-Based Preschool Programs: 

Mettawee Community School’s preschool program is a Head Start partnership which serves 3 and 4 year olds from Pawlet and Rupert. Every spring, the Mettawee Community School offers a pre-Kindergarten screening in order to provide parents with a snapshot of their child’s developmental strengths and/or needs.  Please call 802-645-9009 to schedule a screening and to learn more about the Early Ed program at Mettawee.

Currier Memorial Preschool (formerly Danby/Mt Tabor Early Education Center) is housed at Currier Memorial School and serves students aged 3 and 4 from the towns of Danby, Dorset, Landgrove, Londonderry, Manchester, Mt. Tabor, Peru, Sunderland, and Weston.  Please contact the school at 802-293-5191 for more information. Students need to be 3 years old by September 1.

MEMS PreK is housed at MEMS and is available to all 4 year olds in the towns of Danby, Dorset, Landgrove, Londonderry, Manchester, Mt. Tabor, Peru, Sunderland, and Weston.  Children must be 4 years old by September 1 in order to enroll in this program. The MEMS PreK has two classrooms and is a Head Start partnership.  Families interested in the MEMS PreK program should call 802-362-1597.

Community-Based Preschool Partnerships:

The BRSU also contracts with many Act 166 Pre-qualified Preschool Providers throughout the area. All Act 166 Pre-qualified Preschool Providers meet the legal requirements to provide public PreK by the Vermont Agency of Education and Agency of Human Services. They follow a curriculum aligned with the Vermont Early Learning Standards, use Teaching Strategies GOLD as a developmentally appropriate observational assessment, and have a Vermont licensed early educator on site to provide instruction to students. 

The BRSU has a large Public PreK Region (see below) meaning that students may attend a Pre-qualified preschool provider in towns outside of the geographic boundaries of the BRSU. This is intended for the convenience of area residents who work outside of the supervisory union.

Our current partners include the following:

• Bennington Early Childhood Center - Bennington

• Lil Peeps - Shaftsbury

• Northshire Day School - Manchester

• PlayWorks Child Center - Springfield

• The Lawrence School for Young Children - E. Dorset

• The Little School - Weston

• Wells Village School - Wells

• West River Montessori School - S. Londonderry

To review the preschools in your area, please go to the Building Bright Futures website. 

In order to access Public PreK programming from one of our partners, parents must first enroll their child in a partnering program. The program itself will then provide an Act 166 form and a residency form that the district requires. Act 166 provides for ten hours of public PreK for 35 weeks. The programs themselves are reimbursed for your child’s attendance and the difference in tuition is reflected on the parent’s invoice from the private program.

The forms are also available here: 

Universal PK Request form

Declaration of Residency

Household Income Form (2022-2023)

For more information, please contact Early Education Director at 802-362-2452 ext. 1551.  

Danby, Dorset, Landgrove, Londonderry, Manchester, Mt. Tabor, Pawlet, Peru, Rupert, Sunderland, Weston and Winhall. Towns located between Sunderland and the Massachusetts border to the south, all towns to the New York border to the west, all towns to New Hampshire border to the east, and all towns through Rutland County to the north.