What is Early Childhood in Branson Public Schools?
Branson Public Schools partners with families to provide a full continuum of services for our earliest learners. Each year, Parents As Teachers (PAT) educators conduct over 750+ home visits with children ages birth to five, administer 600+ developmental screenings, and link families to community services. Throughout the year, about 100 students receive early childhood special education services to provide intervention starting at age three. The district also operates a full-service preschool program for 220 three- and four-year-old students. The Highscope Curriculum framework structures student learning and engagement while placing an emphasis on play, working together, solving conflicts, and self-regulation strategies. The focus on human interaction develops young learners who will be more successful in kindergarten.
The Branson early childhood program administers multiple assessments including the new kindergarten entry assessment (KEA) to measure five readiness domains: physical well-being and motor, social and emotional, cognition and general knowledge, approaches toward learning, and language and literacy. Teachers use the data to drive instruction to ensure all students are school ready.