The Newport school district, working with early childhood providers in the city, is ready to start offering all-day preschool and expanded educational services to children as young as infants.

The Newport Board of Education expects to vote Wednesday on a five-year plan that includes home visits and instruction for children aged birth to 3 years old and all-day preschool beginning at age 4.

The program will be a partnership involving Newport schools; the Brighton Center; Children Inc.; Head Start; and St. Paul's Child Care Center. St. Paul's expects to close its facility, but workers there will have an opportunity to work in the new preschool center, which will be located at the school district's old high school. The facility is adjacent to Newport Middle School at Eighth and Columbia streets.

Children will attend Newport elementary schools for half a day and the new facility for half a day. Children Inc. will operate the extended preschool program.

Brighton Center will provide home visits for children as early as birth using two programs that will help parents get their children ready for school.

"Instead of just doubling the exposure to the curriculum, it will come close to tripling it," said Bill Shamblin, a spokesman for the school district. "We'll have a summer program and with the home visits, the kids are going to be getting significantly more instruction."

The United Way funding that had been going to St. Paul's will be divided among the other providers.

The school district and the other providers will use the same assessments to gauge children's skills.

"It's a holistic united approach, as opposed to five or six different programs, each working and not knowing what the others are doing," Shamblin said. "The key is you have all of these resources now working together."

Newport School Superintendent Michael Brandt believes the collaborative approach could be a model nationally.

The early childhood initiative came out of an independent evaluation released earlier this year of the school system's effectiveness. The consulting firm that prepared the report found that Newport children often start kindergarten two years behind in their skills.