Topeka ? Educators say kindergarten has become so important to the development of children that it’s time for the state to make attendance mandatory.

A bill sponsored by Sen. Laura Kelly, D-Topeka, and Sen. Jean Schodorf, R-Wichita, would do just that.

The mandatory school attendance age in Kansas is 7, and kindergarten is optional. The senators’ bill would lower the mandatory age to 6, and require children to attend at least half-day kindergarten.

“Kindergarten used to be just total socialization,” Topeka teacher Nancy Armstrong told Kelly during a meeting of educators. “That is changed. Kindergarten is the foundation. Without it, first-grade test scores are a struggle.”

A hearing is scheduled for Thursday before the Senate Education Committee, of which Schodorf is chairwoman.

“We, as a state, we, as families, invest so much in early childhood education, to have a loophole in our laws that undermines our initial investments makes no sense,” Kelly said.

Kindergarten is an opportune time to begin closing academic gaps, Schodorf said. At Quincy Elementary School in Topeka, where Armstrong teaches kindergarten, some new students arrive with the ability to read simple text, while others don’t appear like they have ever held a pencil.

“If a child has never attended school, or an organized pre-school, that first day of first grade is a shocker,” Armstrong said.

Kelly said the proposed legislation wouldn’t affect that many people – perhaps several hundred, at the most – who would otherwise wait to send their children to school in first grade.

She also said making kindergarten mandatory would improve attendance among some students whose parents don’t get them to class consistently.

Mark Tallman, assistant executive director for advocacy at the Kansas Association of School Boards, said he’s in favor of anything that improves attendance at all levels of education, including kindergarten.

“The problem is we don’t require people to go to school, for all practical purposes,” he said, noting that the measure also would address questions of attendance among home-schooled students.