HOUSTON -- Parents of eligible 4-year-olds in the Houston Independent School District were urged Friday to enroll their children early for pre-Kindergarten classes for the upcoming school year.

Eleven hundred more 4-year-olds will get an early start on their education on Aug. 15 when two new schools, created entirely for full-day pre-Kindergartners, will open.

HISD Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra released details at a Friday news conference about the district's $1.9 million expansion of their early childhood education program.

The schools opening on the first day of class for the 2005-2006 school year are:

Armandina Farias Early Childhood Center, 515 Rittenhouse St. in north Houston
Gabriela Mistral Early Childhood Center, 6203 Jessamine, in west-central Houston

HISD opened two other early education centers in 2004 -- the Ninfa Laurenzo Early Childhood Center in east Houston and the Martin Luther King Jr. Early Childcare Center in south Houston.

The four centers can accommodate 1,460 children.

Also, the new Joe E. Moreno and Jean Hines Caldwell elementary schools will create an additional 110 slots for pre-kindergarten children in north and southwest Houston.

As of Friday, 15 slots were available at the M.L. King learning center, while the Farias center had 30 spots available. The Mistral and Laurenzo locations have room for 200 and 100 students, respectively.

Forty-five schools, affecting about 2,500 preschoolers, will expand their half-day curriculums into full-day programs.

The district's preschool programs took in 14,500 children during the 2004-2005 school year, but a lack of classrooms and teachers left many eligible students on a waiting list.

Eligible students include children at least 4 years old as of Sept. 1, unable to speak and understand English, homeless and/or economically disadvantaged.

District officials said the effort to ensure all eligible pre-Kindergarten students are accommodated comes as research continues to show the impact of academic development in a child's earliest years.