When Islander Tina Parrish signed up her youngest son for kindergarten last spring, she decided she would pay the tuition required for him to attend class all day.

Joshua — a bright and social 5-year-old — seemed ready for full-day kindergarten, and Parrish, the mother of three, was pleased the schedule would allow her to return to work as a substitute teacher.

However, not enough parents shared Parrish’s interest in full-day kindergarten for the 2011-2012 school year, and for the first time in seven years it simply wasn’t offered.

Parrish hasn’t returned to teaching. Each day she or her husband picks Joshua up after his morning kindergarten class and takes him to preschool for the remainder of the day. It works fine, she said, but isn’t ideal.

“He’s the youngest of three; he had preschool prior for two years,” she said. “I knew he was ready for the all-day option.”

Now, Vashon School District officials are working to assure parents like Parrish and her husband have that option again next year.

Next week the district will hold two forums for parents of upcoming kindergarteners. Chautauqua principal Jody Metzger said the meetings will be a chance to give parents information about all-day kindergarten, to hear what they want out of kindergarten and to gauge interest in a Spanish immersion program.

Boosting interest in Vashon’s full-day kindergarten program would not only ensure it’s offered again, districts officials say, but work to attract more young families to the Island and raise Chautauqua’s enrollment numbers.

“We really like to offer it because we think it has a lot of value for all kids,” said Superintendent Michael Soltman. “Particularly kids who need a little extra assistance before they go into first grade.”

Chautauqua principal Jody Metzger said parents have opted for full-day kindergarten in the past for a variety reasons. The schedule often works better for families where both parents work, she said. Some children benefit from the extra socialization, and children who are either behind for their age or need a challenge benefit from the additional time in school.

“The more exposure they have to both academics and the arts, and combining academics and the arts, the better it is,” Metzger said.

Metzger said she hopes to see at least 14 parents enroll their children in full-day kindergarten next year — the number required to offer a class.

Since the state only provides Vashon funds for half-day kindergarten, parents must make up for the second half of the full-day kindergarten teacher’s salary. If 14 families pay the $365-a-month tuition, Metzger said, the district can also offer a reduced rate to about a half-dozen young students.

The school district is pushing full-day kindergarten at a time when the state Supreme Court has put the program in the spotlight.

In 2008 the state’s Basic Education Finance Task Force recommended in its wide-ranging report that the state offer preschool for low-income children and voluntary, full-day kindergarten for all children — efforts it said were needed to ensure quality public education. Implementation began at districts serving the most low-income families, and in 2010 the Legislature mandated that full-day kindergarten be offered state-wide by the 2017-2018 school year.

Just this month a significant high court ruling that found the state has failed to fully fund education also noted that Washington isn’t on track to fully fund kindergarten any time soon. The state has committed to funding full-day kindergarten for 21 percent of school districts in 2011-12 and 22 percent of districts in 2012-13 — progress the court said wasn’t adequate.

Full-day kindergarten has never been extremely popular on Vashon, district officials say. In some years past, the district has barely been able to fill the class. One year the district even allowed parents to pay a higher tuition to secure a spot in the full-day class.

However, both Metzger and Soltman were surprised when only half a dozen parents said they’d pay for full-day kindergarten this school year. They suspect it has do to with the Island’s declining number of children as well as the poor economy.

“I think some families use it as an afternoon daycare option, and it became unaffordable for some and we couldn’t reach the limit,” Soltman said.

U.S. Census results show that there are fewer children on the Island than there used to be. The median age on Vashon rose from 44 in 2000 to 50 in 2010, and the 2010 census counted 75 fewer children under age 5 on Vashon in 2010 than in 2000.

The statistics show at Chautauqua, where there are currently 500 children enrolled, 80 fewer than there were about a decade ago. And school administrators say there were nearly 700 students when the elementary school opened in the early 90s. According to OSPI data, kindergarten enrollment has dropped from 96 in 2002 to about 75 in 2012.

Soltman and Metzger say they’re aware of the trend and believe it’s one the whole community should be concerned about.

“I think Island-wide, just to preserve the sense of community we have, we’ll need to all work together to find ways to make Vashon attractive to families so they’ll continue to move here,” Soltman said.

He noted school officials can’t control the cost of living on Vashon. But the school district’s part, he said, is to continue strengthening its programs so that Vashon schools are attractive to off-Islanders.

Metzger said a Spanish immersion kindergarten class could be appealing to the growing number of parents who want to see their children learn a second language, as well as the significant number of Spanish-speaking families that have moved to the Island.

“I haven’t done a survey,” Metzger said, “but I do have parents that have already contacted me and said, ‘I’ve heard rumors and if that’s the case then count me in.’”

But Metzger says she’s keeping an open mind as she enters the upcoming kindergarten forums. First and foremost, she wants to see what parents want out of kindergarten and what would assure the future of the school’s all-day kindergarten program. Just making more parents aware of the option, she added, may bring the numbers the district needs.

Soltman believes a Spanish immersion kindergarten class could be the first step in creating a district-wide language program that gives students the opportunity to be fluent by the time they graduate from high school.

“I think people will travel a long way for a really strong education system and for a magnet program that appeals to what people want for their kids,” he said. “I think with our new high school building and our strong program, we have the ability to influence the number of families that choose to live here. We need to look at a variety of ways to do that.”