Giving Compass' Take:

· Education Dive provides two strategies from New America to help ease the transition into kindergarten for families and young children.

· What strategies does New America suggest to help with adjusting? How can schools be supportive and understanding while children adjust to their new routine and environment? 

· Check out this article about investing in every aspect of early education and the transition into kindergarten. 

While the early-childhood period covers birth to age 8, the systems that serve infants, toddlers, preschoolers and students in the primary grades largely exist under different governance structures and are financed with different funding streams.

“Because of the historic divide between early learning and the formal K-12 school system, it will require years of dedicated effort to truly establish a system that ensures students and families a transition into a kindergarten classroom that is prepared to receive them and provide them with a high-quality learning experience starting on the very first day of school," write the authors of New America's "Moving into Kindergarten" report.

To accomplish some of what the communities profiled in the report have been able to do, the authors recommend that districts hire, when possible, staff members who are responsible for reaching out to families with children under age 5 and create “cross-grade, cross-school learning communities” to allow for communication between early educators and elementary school teachers.

Read the full article about easing the transition into kindergarten by Linda Jacobson at Education Dive.