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- What happens at the Initial Preschool Child Find Appointment
Preschool Child Find
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- Preschool Child Find
- What is Preschool Child Find?
- What happens at the Initial Preschool Child Find Appointment
- REQUEST AN APPOINTMENT
- Detailed Directions for Completing Registration (Step 1)
- Preschool Child Find Staff
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Guidelines for Preschool Child Development
- Guidelines for Preschool Speech/Language Development
- Helpful Links
- Helpful Links for Parents of Preschool Children During School Closure
- While We Are At Home Together
- Preschool Child Find Chat Presentation Series
- Proof of Residency Documents
What is and what happens at the initial Preschool Child Find Appointment?
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General Overview:
- Preschool Child Find, a service of Loudoun County Public Schools, provides free appointments for children between the ages of 2 (by September 30th) and 5 (not eligible for kindergarten) to assist with identifying their need for special education services.
- Appointments are conducted by certified Loudoun County Public Schools speech language pathologists and special educators who assess general development in the areas of: cognition; communication; physical skills; social/emotional skills; and self-help skills.
- Results may indicate a need for referral for special education evaluation.
- If a referral for special education evaluation is made, the process will be explained in full with the next steps highlighted.
Scheduling the appointment:
- If you are able to attend an appointment with your child within 10 days after completing the pre-registration request, please complete both Steps 1 and 2 on the front page of the Preschool Child Find webpage. Please follow the directions supplied for each step.
- Once we have received your child's pre-registration application and verified that all of the required information has been supplied, you will receive a phone call to schedule the appointment. Please make sure that you can receive voicemail messages at the phone number provided when completing the pre-registration and that the email address supplied is correct. We will attempt and wish to schedule this appointment within 10 days of receiving a completed pre-registration.
- Please plan to arrive a few minutes prior to your scheduled appointment time so that we may check you in.
- If you cannot keep your appointment, please contact Preschool Child Find as soon as possible so that we may schedule another child for that time.
Please bring the child that you scheduled the appointment for with you to the appointment.
Please Note: All adults must have photo identification to enter the Preschool Child Find building.
What to expect:
- The Preschool Child Find appointment takes approximately one hour. Your child will work with a special educator and speech/language pathologist during this time. The team will engage your child using toys, pictures, and games and may use a screening tool to assist in gathering information. Parents may accompany their child into the appointment room to increase the child's comfort level if needed. We ask that parents allow their child to complete the tasks presented and answer the questions asked specifically of them and do not interfere with the information gathering process.
- Following the information gathering portion of the appointment, a Referral Review Meeting will be held at which time the information gathered about the child's developmental abilities will be shared and summarized, any concerns will be discussed, and a determination as to whether an educational disability is suspected and further evaluation is warranted is made. Recommendations regarding the next steps, based on the conclusions drawn, will be made pertaining to the information gathered.
- The staff completing the appointment with you will share how you can obtain a copy of all of the paperwork completed during the appointment.
Appointment Tips:
If you or your child are not feeling well (fever, cold or flu, coughing, vomiting, etc.) or have the onset of any symptoms of illness, please call our office to re-schedule your child’s appointment(s). If you or your child arrive with symptoms of an illness, we will ask you to re-schedule your appointment. In addition, please do not bring siblings that are not attending school due to illness with you to your appointment. Some children that come to our building have medical conditions which make them very susceptible to infection. A common cold can be life-threatening for them. Thank you in advance for helping us do our very best to maintain a healthy environment for everyone at and visiting Preschool Child Find.
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Please ensure your child has had adequate rest. Consider nap times when making the appointment, as tired children generally are less likely to perform to their best ability.
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If your child is not feeling well or has a fever on the day of the appointment, please call the Child Find Center to reschedule. Children who are not feeling well typically have difficulty participating.
- Be sure that your child has eaten prior to the appointment.
- While we understand siblings may need to attend the appointment due to child care constraints, it is preferred that the only child present in the appointment room during the information gathering period is the one about whom you have concerns.
- If a sibling must attend, please ensure you have a quiet activity for him/her to engage in while waiting.
- If you accompany your child into the appointment room, please ensure that you do not assist your child with information gathering tasks or reinterpret questions posed by the educator and/or speech language pathologist.
Additional information:
Preschool Child Find follows Loudoun County Public Schools for delayed openings and closings due to inclement weather. For current information regarding delayed openings and closings, please refer to the Loudoun County Public Schools home page.In the case of delayed openings or school closing due to inclement weather, a Preschool Child Find staff member will contact you that day regarding your appointment. If school AND administration offices are closed, the appointment is cancelled and Preschool Child Find staff will call you as soon as schools/administration offices re-open.