Early Entrance to Kindergarten or First Grade
Early entrance to kindergarten is the admission to kindergarten of a student who: (a) will not be five years of age on or before September 1 of that school term; or (b) is admitted prior to the dates established in the School Code based upon an assessment of his or her readiness to attend school.
Early entrance to first grade is the admission to first grade of a student who: (a) is assessed for readiness, attended a nonpublic preschool and continued his or her education at that school through kindergarten, was taught in kindergarten by an appropriately certified teacher, and will attain the age of six years on or before December 31; or (b) is admitted prior to the dates established in the School Code based upon an assessment of his or her readiness to attend school.
Process
General Timeline
- An early entrance kick-off meeting will be held in January of each school year.
- Registration must occur between February 1 and April 1 of the school year.
- Family proves residency in District 97.
- Family completes the district's early entrance application.
- District 97 will confirm receipt of the application and set up a time for the student to come in for the first step of the evaluation.
- Evaluations will take place on a rolling basis.
Steps
To apply, your child must be a current District 97 resident. For information about residency requirements, please visit https://www.op97.org/hr/residency-requirements.
Parents or guardians of children that reside in the District 97 boundaries may complete an online early entrance request form. Completing the online form starts the consideration process. Completing the form does not mean that grade acceleration will necessarily occur; the student must successfully qualify using District 97's Early Entrance Rubric.
If you need assistance, please email Kirsten Lancaster ([email protected]), Michele Capio ([email protected]), and/or Emilie Creehan ([email protected]). Applications are only accepted between February 1 and April 1 of each school year.
Upon the submission of a completed application, a team of educators knowledgeable about early entrance evaluates the application using a qualitativerubric. Based upon the objective review, the rubric score determines if the child is an appropriate candidate for the next step of the early entrance assessment process. If it is deemed the child is not a candidate for additional evaluation, the family is notified.
The next step of the early entrance process is an assessment with the school psychologist, which includes:
- Literacy Achievement Assessment
- Writing Achievement Assessment
- Numeracy Achievement Assessment
- Social Emotional Survey
-
Cognitive Assessment
Kindergarten Admissions
- Baseline Criteria - Level 1
- Standards-Based Assessment of Readiness
- Fall kindergarten benchmark in literacy, fluency, comprehension, writing, and mathematics computation and concepts
- Early Entrance Kindergarten Rubric
- Completion of the full ASQ by the family
- Standards-Based Assessment of Readiness
- Further Evaluation - Level 2
- Implement Iowa Acceleration Scale Protocol Components
- Social Emotional Survey
- Completion of the individual assessment protocols for ability, aptitude and
achievement:- Achievement (Grade-Level Equivalent) = Scoring will be based on the rubric
- Aptitude (Grade-Level Above) = Scoring will be based on the rubric
- Implement Iowa Acceleration Scale Protocol Components
- After the Level 2 components have been completed, the team will review the rubric and reach out to the family with results.
First Grade Admissions
- Baseline Criteria - Level 1
- Standards-Based Assessment of Readiness
- End-of-year kindergarten benchmark in literacy, fluency, comprehension, writing, and mathematics computation and concepts
- Early Entrance First Grade Rubric
- Completion of the full ASQ by the family
- Standards-Based Assessment of Readiness
- Further Evaluation - Level 2
- Implement Iowa Acceleration Scale Protocol Components
- Social Emotional Survey
- Completion of the individual assessment protocols for ability, aptitude and achievement:
- Achievement (Grade-Level Equivalent) = Scoring will be based on the rubric
- Aptitude (Grade-Level Above) = Scoring will be based on the rubric
- Implement Iowa Acceleration Scale Protocol Components
- After the Level 2 components have been completed, the team will review the rubric and reach out to the family with results.
A determination letter of the final results will be emailed to the family and the receiving principal.
Parents/guardians may accept or decline the offer of early entrance. If the family accepts, the Early Entrance team will schedule a meeting with the incoming school to plan for a seamless transition for the start of the school year.
If the determination team finds the child advanced, but does not find that he/she meets the criteria for
early access, it will provide the child's school with his/her assessment portfolio for use in serving the
area of exceptionality in his/her public preschool or public kindergarten program.