Early Entrance to Kindergarten or First Grade

Per Board of Education Policy 7:50, a child must meet the following requirement to be considered for the early entrance to kindergarten screening process:

• The child must turn 5 years old by December 31 of the school year for which they are seeking entrance.

Step 1: Parent/Guardian Application

The parent or guardian must complete and submit the required forms before April 1.

Step 2: District Screening

Students are screened by District staff between April 1 and May 15.

Students must:

• Score at the 90th percentile or above, when compared with children age 5.0, in all areas of the DIAL-4: Motor, Concepts, Language, Self-Help and Social-Emotional Development.
• Fall outside the risk category on each applicable FastBridge earlyReading and earlyMath subtest for the kindergarten fall benchmark.

The FastBridge measures include:

earlyReading

• Concepts of Print
• Onset Sounds
• Letter Names
• Letter Sounds

earlyMath

• Numeral Identification
• Match Quantity
• Number Sequence

Step 3: Teacher Recommendation

A teacher recommendation letter is required.

Following the screening process, the parent or guardian is notified in writing of the District's decision.

Parent/Guardian Responsibilities

The following forms must be completed and returned to Dr. Holly Colin, Assistant Superintendent of Student Services, before April 1:

• Early Entrance Form
• Authorization to Release/Exchange Information Form

Per Board of Education Policy 7:50, a child must meet the following requirements to be considered for early entrance to first grade:

• Have attended an early childhood center or preschool, public or private.
• Have continued their education at that school through kindergarten.
• Have been taught in kindergarten by an appropriately licensed teacher.
• Have a current teacher recommendation for placement in Grade 1.
• Be 6 years old on or before December 31 of the school year for which they are seeking entrance.
• Demonstrate advanced characteristics in academic, functional and social-emotional domains through the District's screening process.

Step 1: Parent/Guardian Application

The parent or guardian must complete and submit the required forms.

Step 2: District Screening

Students are screened by District staff between April 1 and May 15.

Students must score at the 99th percentile or above in both reading and math on NWEA MAP assessments of the grade they would skip.

Step 3: Additional Screening

Students who meet the NWEA MAP percentile requirement will participate in additional screening.

Students must:

• Score at or above the 90th percentile on each applicable FastBridge earlyReading and earlyMath subtest for the first-grade fall benchmark.
• Participate in a social-emotional screening.
• Provide a teacher recommendation letter.

The FastBridge measures include:

earlyReading

• Word Segmenting
• Nonsense Words
• Sight Words
• Sentence Reading

earlyMath

• Decomposing Numbers
• Number Sequence
• Number Identification

Following the screening process, the parent or guardian is notified in writing of the District's decision.

The following forms must be completed and returned to Dr. Michael Rodrigo, Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning, before April 1:

• Early Entrance Form
• Authorization to Release/Exchange Information Form

For questions about early entrance to kindergarten or first grade, please contact the appropriate District administrator listed above.