AVCS
Moriah
NAC
Saranac
Ticonderoga
CVESChild Care Coordinating Council of the North Country - Update Dec. 2011
School- Readiness Success
Mini Family Resource Centers
The Mini Family Resource Centers offered at each Safe School site are designed to help connect families to the schools their young children will be attending; help the children become more comfortable with their environment when they enter school, and to increase school-readiness in entering kindergarten students.
These goals are addressed through the weekly parent-child structured play groups that meet inside the elementary school buildings in each district. Parents and children come and go weekly, thus becoming familiar with and comfortable in the school environment before the children even begin to attend the school. Parents have the chance to see a bit of the activity within the school and perhaps learn to recognize some of the teachers and the administrator in the school.
Further, the children develop relationships with other similar age peers with whom they will be attending school once it starts. It helps everyone to have a friend or two when school starts!
Developmental screenings are offered to each family every 6 months in play groups. These are voluntary screenings that can lead to a referral to Early Intervention or the Pre-School Committee on Special Education if further assessment is indicated. These screenings help identify areas children may need support in early- before they enter the classroom.
Northern Adirondack Central School is a good example of a situation where developmental screenings helped 3 young children with being better prepared for kindergarten. Three young boys from different families were all regular attendees of the NACS play group over the last three years. Each of these children exhibited some behaviors of concern or missed developmental milestones during their participation in the play groups.
Their parents were offered the chance to have a screening during the play group. In each case, these screenings indicated developmental areas of concern. The children were referred by CCCCNC staff to the appropriate agency for further assessment. Each child did end up receiving support services prior to entering school.
All three children started Kindergarten this year. Their teachers and parents are reporting that they each had an uneventful, successful start to their kindergarten career. If not for the screenings they received at play group they might well have started kindergarten needing a great deal of support and having to start the assessment process at that point.
Parenting Education classes are also offered annually in each participating Safe Schools district. Parents attend a 12-week curriculum aimed at helping to develop knowledge of tools for supporting, guiding and disciplining their pre-school or school age children. Along with the parenting class CCCCNC offers child care so there are no barriers for parents to attend class regularly.
In the Saranac Central district last year one parent of a pre-school aged child attended the whole course of parenting class. This parent was struggling with their child’s behavior, feeling very stressed and out of ideas. The child came just as regularly to child care, giving CCCCNC staff members a good opportunity to observe the child’s behavior. The sort of behavior the parent was discussing in the class was clearly observed by the child care staff.
The two parts of the staff were able to compare, notes, talk with the parent about how a referral for assessment might benefit the child and facilitate a referral to the school’s PCSE for evaluation. In the end, the child was identified for services that started well before the child entered Kindergarten in the district. This is another situation where the child was better able to enter Kindergarten successfully, with a support program in place already, and ready to learn.
Contact:
Parenting Education
Juliette Lynch - 518-561-4999
Family Connections
Laurie Booth-Trudo - 518-561-4999
For more information, please contact:
Wanda McQueen -
Project Administrator
(518) 561-0100 x 357
School Community Coordinator
(518) 561-0100 x373