Screening

A screening must be conducted to determine eligibility for entrance into Project HELP.  Requests for preschool screenings may be made by parents, relatives, physicians, day care centers, or other agencies.  No child is screened without parental permission.  Screenings are conducted annually each spring throughout the districts at Preschool Round Up.  Screenings are also conducted by individually by appointment within each school district and also at the Early Childhood Office.  Any child between the ages of 3 and 5 years who lives in one of our member districts may request a screening by calling the Early Childhood Office at 844-999-9007.

The purpose of a preschool screening is to answer questions parents may have about their child’s development and to identify those children who may need preschool education services.  Screenings are completed by a team of professionals, including the child's potential teacher, and takes about 45 minutes to an hour.  The screening process checks speech and language development, thinking and reasoning abilities, small and large muscle coordination, visual-motor integration, social skills, listening, vision and hearing skills, English proficiency (when applicable), and other academic readiness skills.  The Brigance Screen III is the research based screening instrument that is used for all children who are screened.  A parent interview is also completed during this time.  Both the screening and the parent interview/exit interview are to be conducted in the child's native language and an interpreter will be arranged for when the screening request comes in.   

Screening results are shared with the parents and children who exhibit delays at the preschool screening may be referred for additional evaluation(s).  School/program options are also shared with the families when the exit interview is completed and parental preferences are noted at this time.  Screening paperwork, referral and IEP paperwork (when appropriate) will remain on file in the Early Childhood office for each child and also be shared with the classroom teacher upon entry into a Project HELP classroom.  

Project H.E.L.P. uses a weighted point system to ensure that children with the greatest need for preschool are given priority for placement into the classroom program.   Points are assigned for at-risk screening scores both for academics and speech, family situations, medical/health concerns, and developmental and behavioral issues. 

All information gathered at the time of the screening including the parent interview form and the results of the screening will be used to determine points assigned to the child.  This information will not be shared and will only be used to assist staff in determining eligibility.  Children with the highest points will be enrolled first until the classroom is full.  Top priority will be given to children who are identified as homeless and youth in care.  The screening results including the point page, parent interview questionnaire, exit parent interview and copy of the referral (when appropriate) will all be kept in the child's file.    Students who are not toilet trained will not be excluded from enrollment.    All students enrolled in Project HELP must have a point page on file (this includes children with IEPs where placement is determined by the IEP team).

Eligible children who are not offered a spot in the class remain on a waiting list and will be contacted as soon as a spot becomes available.  Students who have been screened and placed on a wait list during the school year will be asked to be re-screened again in order to determine if eligibility continues for the following school year.