UTICA COMMUNITY SCHOOLS
February 5, 2025
Dear Parent,
We are pleased to welcome your child to an exciting year of learning as a Utica Community Schools kindergarten student. We are committed to making your child's kindergarten experience a strong foundation for all future learning and beyond.
As part of the kindergarten registration process, we are pleased to offer a pre-kindergarten screener for your child. The following is some information regarding the purpose of the screener.
One of the main purposes of this screener is to provide feedback as to where your child is, in such readiness areas as letter, number, shape and color recognition, counting, and other early childhood learning targets. Our UCS staff will discuss the screener results with you and provide recommendations for Kindergarten or Young Fives based upon screener results. These results are intended to support your understanding of your child’s development and suggest areas you can assist your child with over the summer in preparing for a good start to their educational journey.
Our teacher’s welcome children with different experiences into their kindergarten classrooms. You will discover that our kindergarten curriculum meets the differing developmental needs of each student. We are excited to meet your student and begin a new year of learning. We look forward to partnering with you to provide your child with a successful kindergarten year.
If your child is currently enrolled in one of our GSRP classrooms, traditional preschool classroom, ECSE classrooms, full day Preschool program, or Bridge to Kindergarten Young Fives program, their teacher will screen your child so there is no need to sign up for a screening appointment. If your child does not presently attend UCS preschool, please sign up today at the link below for a screening appointment for either Young Fives or Kindergarten.
For families interested in Young Fives, who meet the birthdate requirement of September 1 – December 1, please sign up using the link below. Screening for Young Fives will take place at Walsh Community Education Center.
https://tinyurl.com/UCSYoungFives2025
For families interested in Kindergarten at Bruce Collins Elementary, please sign up using the link below. Screening for Kindergarten will take place here at Bruce Collins Elementary.
https://tinyurl.com/BruceCollinsScreener2025
If you have any questions, please contact your school's principal. Again, welcome to this all-important start of your child's challenging and rewarding K-12 learning journey.
Sincerely,
Mark Dziatczak
Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning
