The Norwalk City Schools will soon be in the process of conducting screenings of all students who will be entering kindergarten this fall. To be eligible for kindergarten for the upcoming school year, a child must be 5 years old by Sept. 30, 2007.
This year, kindergarten screening in the Norwalk City Schools will be a bit different then in past years. Due to some changes in requirements from the state as well as some scheduling conflicts, kindergarten screening will take place during the week of May 14. A major change will be that only a portion of the screening program will be completed in May. In May, the incoming kindergarten students will be screened in the areas of vision, hearing and receptive language. The receptive language area addresses how well a student is able to receive and use auditory information. Students must be able to follow directions and use and understand language in order to learn in school. In addition, the parents will complete the registration process for kindergarten as well as meet with the school nurse regarding their child's immunization history.
When school begins in August, we will complete the screening process for your child. During the August screening we will evaluate your child in the areas of speech, fine motor skills, and literacy (reading readiness.) Research has shown that students need skills in certain areas if they are to develop into good readers. These skills include letter identification and the awareness that words are made up of sounds. This awareness includes the ability to identify rhyming words and the ability to separate out sounds in words.
Because we will not complete our screening process until school starts, we would encourage parents who have questions regarding their child's readiness for kindergarten to contact the district's psychologist or their neighborhood school at the following numbers:
District Psychologists Office: Mrs. King or Mrs. Knight (419) 663-9108
League Elementary: Kenneth Moore (419) 668-2450
Maplehurst Elementary: Jacqueline Nemitz (419) 668-6035
Pleasant Elementary: Janice Smith (419) 668-4134.
Important Dates for the 2007-2008 school year:
Aug. 27 Teacher Work Day
Aug. 28 First day for students; grades 1 to 12
Aug. 29 Kindergarteners with last names beginning with A to M attend
Aug. 30 Kindergarteners with last names beginning N to Z attend
Aug. 31 All kindergarten students attend
Sept. 3 Labor Day no school
Nov. 21 to 23 Thanksgiving break no school
Dec. 24 to Jan. 2 Winter break - no school
March 21 to 28 Spring break - no school
June 1 Graduation
June 4 Last Day for Students K to 11.
Make up days will be scheduled on June 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, as needed until all days are made up.
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