School screening breaks tradition Jean Koch works with 3 year old Olivia Bowe during child development screening at Heritage School (photo by H. Marc Larson). School districts now evaluate younger children in an attempt to catch learning problems By Leigh Ann Wagner Kroening News-Chronicle Twenty-nine-year-old Ben Schultz vaguely remembers the day his mom took him to register for kindergarten. The enrollment process 24 years ago included testing of rudimentary skills to be sure all children were ready to start school. In many districts the children who weren't ready were recommended to wait a year before beginning school. Those who were ready were put into classrooms with others at their level. So when the time came for Schultz's 4-year-old daughter to register for kindergarten, he made sure she knew the alphabet, numbers, shapes and colors and had even started teaching her how to read. "Those are things kids should know before they start school," he said. "They should have a minimum level of learning." Schultz said he was surprised when the people handling registration for the Green Bay School District merely asked him for residency information, his daughter's immunization record and proof of a medical physical and then handed him a list of suggested things she should know. "It included things such as buttoning her own pants, knowing her address and phone number and knowing how to use the bathroom by herself," Schultz said. "But they never asked her to demonstrate that she can do any of those things." DIFFERENT KIND OF SCREENING Though all school districts in Brown County have some type of pre-kindergarten screening process in place, the type of evaluation and how it is administered differs depending on the district. One thing that is constant is that the screenings in all districts target preschool-aged children, usually 3 year olds. The other similarity is all districts use the screening process to identify children with learning or behavioral delays and get them the help they need before they enter school. "If we catch them at an earlier age, we can diagnose and prognose them earlier and address these issues before they truly become problematic," said David Zadnik, the assistant superintendent for the Green Bay School District. Zadnik said the district relies on preschool and day-care teachers or parents to identify children ages 3 to 5 who may have special needs. An early-childhood screening team comprised of teachers, a speech language pathologist and other specialists then evaluates those who present educational or behavioral problems and makes any necessary referrals. Green Bay is the only school district in the county that doesn't try to evaluate all children at some point before they begin school. "We're such a humongous district that it would be very time-consuming," Zadnik said. "But we also have a better relationship today with many of the community agencies that detect and treat any problems. We work more closely today with day-care centers, preschools and parents, who are the ones who most often recognize delays, and we have better programming and services to treat these problems earlier." The De Pere, Howard-Suamico and Ashwaubenon school districts all host Child Development Days, during which teachers, speech and language specialists and behavioral experts observe preschool-aged children at play and evaluate their general cognitive and gross motor skills, coordination, speech and language abilities and behavior. Social workers are available to address parental concerns and let them know of available community resources. In West De Pere, the evaluation process is called Teddy Bear Screening, but the goal is the same. With both programs, children who show any signs of developmental delays are given referrals to special programs to help ready them for school. "Child Development Days have been done for years in addition to kindergarten screening," said Tina Shedeger, a school psychologist for the Howard-Suamico School District. "With the new state Child Find laws, the emphasis has been put on identifying developmental delays as early as possible so corrective action can be taken before the child starts school. Kindergarten screening wasn't as useful for that." NO GATE-KEEPING PROCESS Wisconsin law states any child 5 years old by the start of the school year has a legal right to attend school, which is another reason the evaluation processes of today differ from the traditional kindergarten screening. "It's not a pass/fail anymore," said Karen Barnack, the secretary of pupil services for the Ashwaubenon School District. "It's not as though the kids can't come to school if they're not ready. In fact, we would rather have them come." Maria Arena, the principal of Cormier Elementary School in Ashwaubenon, said the screenings are just a tool to help identify children who may need extra help honing certain skills before they attend kindergarten. The screenings are not meant to keep anyone out of school, she said. "Screening is not a gate-keeping process," Arena said. "All children who are 5 years of age are entitled by law to come to school." Rob Lennon, the director of pupil services for the De Pere School District, said the traditional kindergarten screening was flawed. Discouraging some children from coming to school because they lacked certain skills many times meant they weren't going to get the help they needed, he said. "When some kids are told to wait a year before attending school, the question then becomes 'What do they do if they don't come to school?'" Lennon said. "Some families are better-equipped than others to deal with any special needs. We look at it as we need to get them started in kindergarten as soon as possible and then tune our curriculum to meet the child's needs. "The philosophy for us is that kids are pretty much all across the board. It's not the kids' job to be ready for school. It's the school's job to be ready for kids of all abilities." HETEROGENEOUS EMPHASIS Lennon said the former practice of grouping children according to their ability led to segregated learning experiences. Students benefit the most when they are educated with other children of varying ages, talents and abilities, he said. "We strive to have heterogeneous classes," Lennon said. Jason Lau, the director of student services for the West De Pere School District, said studies have shown when children who have delays are grouped with others with delays, they tend not to progress as quickly as when they are integrated with children at higher levels of learning. "Grouping the kids according to ability is something we try not to do," Lau said. "The focus is on meeting the needs of all kids." Lau said working with children at varying levels of understanding can be a challenge for kindergarten teachers, but the current screening process helps them prepare for it. "The benefit of the current screening is that the teachers are in on it and see the kids they eventually will be working with," he said. "They get a sense of what to expect and also can help the parents prepare or get any services they need before the child starts school." Arena said kindergarten teachers understand the challenges that come with educating 5-year-olds. "Teachers at all levels will probably tell you they all have some frustrations," she said. "Kindergarten teachers know to expect children of all levels of ability. They accept that their job is to do what they can to bring them up to speed." Schultz said he worries his daughter's future kindergarten teacher will be so busy bringing other children up to speed that the time he spent teaching his daughter phonics will be for nothing. "That scares me a lot," he said. "When I entered kindergarten, they screened for a minimum understanding and grouped us according to ability, and I was still bored. What are my kids going to encounter? I know it's just kindergarten, but this is the beginning of her education. This is the foundation, and I can't help but wonder what kind of foundation it will be."