PARENTS INVITED TO TAKE KINDERGARTEN-READY SURVEY

Chattanooga, TN — Chattanooga 2.0 invites parents of rising Kindergarten students to take a survey about their child’s skills and abilities leading up to the start of school.

Caregivers who complete the survey will receive a gift card while supplies last and digital resources via email to help them get their child ready for kindergarten.

The survey is part of a community project led by Chattanooga 2.0 to create alignment around what it means to be “ready” for Kindergarten.

Survey results will inform how best to support Hamilton County parents as they prepare their children in the year leading up to kindergarten. The group seeks to learn what resources families want and need to build their child’s k-ready skills.

Families can visit www.chatt2.org to access the survey. The survey will be open from February 29th to March 29th. It is open to both parents whose children attend child care and those whose children spend their first few years of life learning and playing at home.

The project stems from community-wide feedback from parents of young children who say that they are unsure if their child was ready for kindergarten. Chattanooga 2.0 staff and community partners such as early childhood experts, service providers, and the public school system worked together over the last year to create a common definition of kindergarten readiness. The definition agreed upon by the group is:

“Children will grow into strong learners and adults when we support their brain growth before and after Kindergarten. In Hamilton County, we aspire that every rising Kindergartener is physically, socially, emotionally, and intellectually prepared for success in Kindergarten. To do this, they need all of us – families, schools, and communities – to provide a strong foundation in the following five skill areas: Learning Skills, Emotional and Social Skills, Language Skills, Math Skills, and Self-Help and Movement Skills.”

Chattanooga 2.0 will launch a campaign in the coming months to spread the word about the community’s role in instilling early life skills in children before they reach Kindergarten. This will include a list of quick-reference Kindergarten skills, as well as activities families can do with four and five-year-olds to build a strong foundation for school and life success.

“We aim to provide resources to parents before their child registers for Kindergarten, because building a strong foundation does not happen overnight,” said Jennifer Andrews, Chattanooga 2.0 director of early childhood strategies. “Feedback from the survey will help our team craft and tailor resources to meet the individual needs of children in our community.”