When my first daughter was about to start kindergarten in Montclair three years ago, the town offered a great week long kindergarten summer screening for free. You signed up and dropped your child off for a few hours a day for a full week. The teacher would “screen” your child, which basically means informally test her/him to see what she/he knew. Those notes would go to the kindergarten teacher, which gave her a head start. I loved it, not only because it was free week of summer camp, but I thought it was important. Especially for helping your little one transition into “big kid” school.
The district stopped doing it after that, I’m assuming because of budget cuts. But this year, they are bringing it back—sort of. Instead of the full week at different schools, it’s less than an hour at Bullock School.
The Department of Instruction will provide summer screening for all incoming Kindergartners. The screening this year is a single session which will take less than an hour to complete. Regardless of the building to which students are assigned, the screening will be centralized at The Charles H. Bullock School where there is ample off-street parking for all families whose children participate. Screening sessions are conducted by trained, experienced staff. Appointments are scheduled in the morning between June 25th and July 26th. An appointment schedule is being mailed to all families. In the event you do not receive yours, please call Mrs. Roxanne Smith to schedule an appointment: 973-509-4035.
It would be nice if could they offer evening hours once or twice during the testing month!