Early Childhood Screening is offered by school districts to all children in Minnesota once they have passed their 3rd birthday. These free screenings are not designed to assess a child’s development, but rather are meant to briefly screen their development in areas of large motor skills, fine motor skills, cognitive skills, and health (vision, hearing, weight). Parents also complete a checklist related to their child’s social emotional development. Most children are on target in these areas of development, but occasionally children may show signs of need in one or more area. Families then can access district services to help their child be better prepared for kindergarten! The earlier the screenings are completed, the more time available to support any areas of need that may be discovered. For example, a child’s vision or hearing needs are areas that parents could easily miss, and this screening could catch those needs.
Early Childhood Screenings are required for all children prior to entering kindergarten, however it is best to have the screenings completed at least a year prior to a child’s kindergarten start date.
This is the brochure developed by the Minnesota Department of Education regarding Early Childhood Screening:
http://ecadmin.wdfiles.com/local–files/early-childhood-screening/MDE%20ECS%20Brochure.pdf
Districts receive funding to support Early Childhood Screening based on the number and ages of children screened in the previous year. The Early Childhood Screening coordinator is responsible for submitting an annual report to MDE.
The reporting of your annual Early Childhood Screening (ECS) program and component cost is required by Minnesota Statutes, section 121A.16 – 121A.17 and Minnesota Rule 3530.3200.
The Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) requires each school district to electronically submit data by July 15, 2016. All information required in this data submission relates to the period of July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016.
All data is to be filed electronically to MDE Early Learning Services Data System at the following website address: http://education.state.mn.us under “Data”/“Data Submissions.”
Summary Early Childhood Screening data provided to MDE will be posted to the MDE website by school district and statewide. This form is a worksheet to prepare school district data for electronic submission to the Early Learning Services Data System.