KA‘I Elementary Program (est. 2022)

A partnership between ʻIolani School and Pālolo Elementary, the KA‘I Elementary Program is the newest of the KA‘I Programs and began in the summer of 2022 to close the achievement gap for underserved elementary-aged students, many of whom are English language learners and all of whom experienced a significant learning loss during the pandemic. To be eligible for this program, students commit to attending the summer program for four consecutive summers, beginning the summer after their 2nd-grade year and ending the summer before their 6th-grade year. Half of the students in our first cohort were former KAʻI Keiki students.

In our first summer, we welcomed 12 rising 3rd-grade students from Pālolo Elementary to campus every day for our six-week summer program. We provide a bus to pick students up from the Pālolo housing each morning and bring them to ‘Iolani School. At ‘Iolani, students receive hot breakfast, math and reading sessions, a morning recess, Kukui Korner time with hands-on learning activities, lunch, and weekly afternoon activities including STEM sessions, Dance/Improv, Sports, Library time, and Cooking. At the end of the day, our bus took our students back to Pālolo Homes.

We are currently offering weekly tutoring at Pālolo Elementary and have a team of 6 tutors who help our students every Tuesday.

This program will reach full capacity over the next three years and will eventually serve approximately 50 students in grades 3-6 from Pālolo Valley.