Schools
District 70 to Expand Early Childhood Program in Fall
Libertyville Elementary School District 70 will expand its Early Childhood program to four days a week.
The Early Childhood program offered by will expand to four days a week to give students more time with teachers.
In the fall, the program will run from Monday through Thursday in its location at . Currently the program runs Monday, Wednesday and Friday but students often lose a day because many school holidays fall on Monday and many early release days and Institute days are on Friday. In addition to the classroom program, resource speech services are also provided at .
Early Childhood provides intervention for children 3-5 years old exhibiting moderate to severe delays in cognitive, speech and language, motor and/or social and emotional development. The EC staff members work closely with parents toward a common goal that the children may later function without need of special education intervention.
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“This will allow students more classroom time and with Fridays free, our teachers will have more flexibility in providing related services,” said Marilynn Menuey, Director of Special Education. “The four-day-per-week classroom would greatly improve the quality of services we can provide for our families. It would allow for more consistent instructional opportunities of the children and would provide for more timely child find screenings, provided in the Early Childhood classroom environment, throughout the year.” By offering screenings every month, most children can be screened as soon as they turn three years of age.
Under the new plan, Fridays will be used for monthly screenings, play-based assessments, evaluations and report writing, annual reviews, Early Intervention and Kindergarten transition meetings and other team meetings.
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“We are so excited to see the children in class four days each week as opposed to just three days,” said EC educator and speech therapist Sylvia Olson. “We will be able to provide a better continuum of services each week and do much more needed practice. There will be fewer days the children will miss and more opportunities for learning.”
