Dear Prospective Pre-kindergarten Families,
Welcome to your child’s pre-k screening day!
The purpose of this letter is to let you know what to expect during your child’s pre-k screening appointment and to share with you some important information about registration and placement.
As you know, the screening appointment will last one hour and fifteen minutes. During this time your child will have opportunities to play and to interact with children and adults in the classroom. There will be approximately 6 children present during your child’s screening appointment.
Among the adults present will be: the pre-k teacher, the pre-k paraprofessional, the early education special education/early support teachers, a speech language pathologist and the school nurse. The principal and I may be present as well. The adults will be observing and interacting with your child and taking notes about what they see and hear. You will get a copy of these notes before you leave the appointment. The adults will also check in with you to see if you have any questions or concerns. Also, the school nurse will be meeting with each parent for approximately ten minutes to begin to get to know you and to establish your child’s developmental and medical history. This meeting with the nurse will take place in a private corner of the pre-k classroom, and you may follow up with individual meetings with the nurse at a future date. Additionally, one of the teachers will take a photo of you and your child. This photo is an important way for the adults to remember who you both are; during the course of the day we may meet up to 20 new children and parents! The information gleaned and shared during the screening process will be considered during the formation of pre-k classes.
We encourage you to come to your screening day with all of your registration paperwork completed. Please also bring a copy of your child’s birth certificate and immunization record with you. While your child is playing, you may meet with the nurse, talk with other early childhood educators, observe your child, get to know other parents and read some helpful information that we will provide that day.
It is important that you know that it is our most sincere hope to be able to offer a pre-kindergarten placement to your child during the 2010-2011 school year. In years past, we have generally been able to offer a placement to all students, but we do occasionally experience a waiting list. In the event that we have a waiting list, placements will be offered to children via a random selection process as required per Act 62, Vermont’s law regarding pre-kindergarten education. We have not yet finalized the 2010-2011 pre-kindergarten schedules in each school. We will welcome your comments regarding placement during your child’s screening appointment. While we can and will consider your schedule/placement preferences as we create our classes for next year, we may not be able to honor or accommodate all requests. We will mail placement letters to prospective pre-kindergarten families during the week of April 27, 2010.
We hope that you will read the little storybook (or paper, should you download the forms) that we’ve provided with your child before the screening day. We also hope that this letter has provided the information you need in order to know in order to talk about the screening day with your child. Below is a “to do” list to complete prior to your child’s screening appointment. Please bring all completed paperwork with you to the appointment. If you have any questions or concerns about screening or registration, please do not hesitate to contact me. I can be reached at 223-2796 x352 or jmillerarsenault@u32.org.
Sincerely,
“To Do” List for Screening Appointment:
_____ Bring a copy of child’s birth certificate
_____ Bring a copy of child’s immunization record
_____ School’s new student registration form
_____ School’s health history form
_____ WCSU Pre-kindergarten registration family information form
_____ WCSU Pre-kindergarten application for 2010-2011
_____ Read “My Pre-K Screening Day” booklet/paper to your child
