Medford School District 549C
Early Entrance to Kindergarten
Eligibility
- Your child will turn 5 on or before October 1st and you are requesting an early entry into kindergarten, or your child will turn 6 on or before October 1st and you are requesting early entry into the first grade.
- Your address is within the Medford School District attendance area.
- Schedule and complete a preliminary interview with the principal by May 1.
- After meeting with the principal, a Request for Early Entry form with a signature for permission to complete the assessment, along with an assessment fee will be collected. (The principal will provide you with this form.)
- Completed form and payment must be received by May 10, with no exceptions. (Fee could be reduced by the district for families for whom this is a hardship.)
- Work with designated school contact (provided by Principal) to schedule the assessment.
Evaluation
- Evaluations will be scheduled by the designated school contact in May or June and will include a written/oral assessment. The evaluations will take approximately 45 minutes.
- You will be responsible for bringing your child to the school for the evaluation. Parents will not be with their child during the assessment.
- The assessment used is the Brigance Early Childhood Screen III. This is a norm-referenced, research based, reliable tool for indicating readiness for advancement.
Determination
- The components include academic, self-help, social -emotional and reading readiness. This process includes information provided by parents and parents will complete feedback forms with the evaluator.
- By June 30, the information will be sent to the Teaching & Learning Director and a decision will be made as to whether your child meets the initial early entry criteria.
- You will be notified by the Principal or Director with the results by the end of June.
- If your child does not meet the initial criteria, the early entry request is denied.
- If your child does meet the initial criteria, your child will be enrolled in school for an initial eight (8) week observation period.
- During this time, the teacher will be completing readiness scales and monitoring progress.
- After the eight (8) week period, your child's performance/progress is reviewed, and a final decision is made whether your child is benefiting from the early entrance experience.
- You will be notified by the Principal or Director of the final decision on whether your child will continue the early entry process before the 2nd term grading period begins.