A SPICE 2004 Program
Early Childhood Program
St. Mary's Grade School
St. Mary's School, Salina, Kansas is a parochial grade school and was established in 1955. When the grade school was first established, the school was comprised of grades one through six. In 1984, St. Mary's School incorporated an early childhood program, including a four-year-old pre-kindergarten as well as a kindergarten. A few years later, a fully licensed day care program was formed as part of the school's program. The day care program accepts children who are at least two years old. This program operates year-round. Recently the school has also adopted a three-year-old preschool program.
The staff of the three- and four-year-old programs are certified teachers. The curriculum of the pre-kindergarten program is integrated with St. Mary's kindergarten program. What started as 25 preschool students has now grown into 130 children, not including the 60 kindergarten students.
The program is unique because of its focus on developmental readiness. The early childhood program assists parents in the academic readiness of their children. It also incorporates an early intervention program which helps identify students with special needs. According to the special education staff, 35% of the special education caseload are from students in the early childhood program. In grades one through six, approximately 14% of the students at St. Mary's have IEPs (Individual Education Programs) and receive services. Students identified range from autistic, hearing impaired, learning disabled, speech and language delays, physical needs to gifted students.
In the spring of the year, the early childhood team conducts a screening for those entering kindergarten the following fall. Using various tools such as phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fine motor, gross motor, and memory skill assessments, the team has a better understanding of the students and the needs that may need attention. Parents of these students receive communication about the screening, so they too may be involved.
Partnering with community health services, early childhood support groups and the local cooperative in education as well as parents, St. Mary's has been able to serve a wide diversity of learning needs. Creating an early childhood team atmosphere, teachers are better able to share resources and ideas to help students achieve success at their own particular developmental level.
The success of St. Mary's early childhood program does not only help the school as a feeder program, but also assists in the future success of students in upper grade levels. The identification of students' learning needs at an early age has helped the students overcome obstacles. Even with 14% of the student population in grades 1 through 6 with active IEPs, 97% of the students score average to above average on standardized tests.
