Screenings

Screenings:

• Evaluate a child's overall health and development.
• Identify health, social-emotional, or developmental problems—especially ones that could be addressed before kindergarten.
• Include a check of a child's immunization record.
• Are free and available in every school district.

Minnesota Law

• Screenings are required before children start public kindergarten.
• All children must be screened by age five.
• Children might not need to be re-screened if they were already screened through a program like Head Start, for example.

Contact

Early Childhood Screening Program
www.education.state.mn.us/
St. Paul: 651-582-8426
Minneapolis: 612-348-8687

Assessments

Assessments:

• Can be done as early as birth.
• Observe behavior in the child's every day environment, like their home.
• Aid the understanding and supporting of a child's development.
• Look at language, emotional, social, physical, and cognitive development but can also focus on just one area, like language.
• May include parents observing the child at home and collecting information about how the child is growing and learning.
• Provide information about your child's individual strengths and weaknesses.
• Provide information to childcare providers or early childhood educators about your child's needs.

Assessment Types

The two most common are:

• Ounce scale (infants and toddlers)
• Work sampling system (three- to five-year-olds)

Minnesota Law

• Childcare providers are not required to perform assessments.  If a childcare provider does, they may choose which assessment to perform.
• Some early childhood education programs are required to have ongoing assessments to measure a child's progress while enrolled in the program.  The assessments also help in the curriculum and classroom activity planning.