Ready to Learn in Kindergarten

Engages families and early care providers to ensure the healthy growth and development of young children. The goal is that all Stamford children will enter kindergarten ready to learn. This work started with a process to agree on a definition of Kindergarten Readiness.

Parent Engagement

Go Before You Show Campaign | The Go Before You Show (GBYS) campaign encourages pregnant women to seek prenatal care in the first three months of their pregnancy and connects them to a prenatal care provider as early as possible in their pregnancy. The campaign educates women on related topics, such as nutrition and finances. As a compliment, access to Text4Baby, a free mobile information service designed to promote maternal and child health through text messaging, is also provided. Women who text BABY (or BEBE in Spanish) to 511411 will receive three free text messages a week related to prenatal care timed to their due date or baby’s birth date.

Sparkler App | Sparkler, a FREE developmental screening application, available in English and Spanish, promotes healthy early childhood development and helps you advocate for your child. With the help of Sparkler, parents and families have access to the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (a developmental screening), developmentally aligned play activities, parent forums, and early childhood coaches. Sparkler is being added to the Stamford Public Schools Kindergarten registration process for the 2022-2023 school year.

Prekindergarten Transition Summary (PKTS)

This summary is completed by preschool teachers across Stamford on incoming kindergarten children. This summary includes social and developmental information on children and is shared with kindergarten teachers. It is a tool that assists teachers with classroom placements and provides the opportunity for teachers to have a baseline knowledge about their incoming class.

We have collected and summarized Preschool Kindergarten Transition Summaries for over 30 different programs within Stamford for the past 3 years.

Professional Development 

We bridge the gap among early childhood providers and with kindergarten staff by offering joint professional development and workshops. In the recent past we have:

• • Developed and implemented two half-day workshops for kindergarten and preschool teachers and arranged for preschool teachers to visit kindergarten classrooms.
  • Conducted an Early Childhood Community Convening to share community resources, with a keynote speaker and six small group learning sessions.
  • Facilitated three professional development sessions on Health & Safety, Supporting Diverse Needs, and Emotional Connection.

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