The New York State Education Department invited several Rockland County School Districts that receive Pre-K grants for full-day programs to present on Best Practices in Early Childhood Education. Dr. Tesik, Executive Director of Pupil Personnel Services, Ms. Beglin, principal of WOS, Ms. White,, AP at WOS, Ms. DiMaio, Central Registrar, and Dr. Culot, Assistant Superintendent for Instruction presented to the NYSED and other Rockland County Districts to highlight South Orangetown’s Best Practices in Early Childhood Education. We began the presentation with an overview of the SOCSD Vision, Elevate, Engage, Inspire as it relates to high expectations, engagement, and equity for students. We shared some of our outreach efforts to in-district families to reach them as early as possible and welcome into our school community, while providing them with the resources and connections needed to make their journey in our district successful. We highlighted some of the school community events we have for families to experience some of our curriculum and programming with their children such as, School Maker Faire, Family Wellness Night, Family Literacy Night, Family Math Night, Family Tech Night, and Family Science Night(Night Under The Stars). Laura DiMaio, SOCSD Central Registrar, spoke about some of our outreach efforts to incoming Kindergarten students and new registrants such as, Parent Kindergarten Information Nights, Flyers/Postcards (English and Spanish), Registration Assistance Days, Kindergarten Screening, InfoSnap Process, and the introduction to the SOCSD Family Engagement Center (FEC).
Ms. Beglin and Ms. White shared some of the ways they help transition students to Kindergarten, including going on Pre-K CPSE Visits, Kindergarten Screening, Speech Assessment, School Tour, Meet and Greet, Family Nights, Benefits of the Princeton Plan, Articulation Meetings, and Onboarding of all new families while identifying resources needed. Dr. Tesik presented on the role of the Office of Pupil Personnel Services and the Family Engagement Center (FEC), including identifying resources needed, building partnerships with families, Resource Materials and Drop-in Center, Assistance with UPK Application, and the new ParentChild+ Program that enables us to provide a Learning Specialist to work at a toddler’s home collaboratively with the parent and child. Dr. Tesik also highlighted the FEC parent workshops, Building a Family Safety Plan, Safety Net Program, and our partnership with the Local Early Intervention Coordinating Council and the Pearl River CSD & Community Support Network.
We concluded with accentuating the importance of our relationship and partnership with the Child Care Resource Center of Rockland and some of the work they do for Rockland districts including, oversight over in-district programs, Pre-K Lottery, convenience for families to have children attend Pre-K closer to work, implementation of the Creative Curriculum, coordination on the County-Wide Professional Development Day, and the Universal Pre-K Information Night. The NYSED shared that they enjoyed learning more about the South Orangetown School District and thanked us for our commitment to providing high-quality early childhood experiences for your district’s youngest learners.
