Photo by Savannah Schmidt.
Katie Thomas, a kindergarten teacher at Edgewood Elementary School, teaches counting to her class on Feb. 10.
Katherine Thomas teaches kindergarten, but her work extends far beyond the classroom.
Thomas works to ensure her students receive a quality education, earning the title of Teacher of the Year for Edgewood Elementary and representing Homewood City Schools in the competition for the state title.
Beyond daily classwork, Thomas is advocating for more awareness about kindergarten preparedness and Alabama’s early intervention resources. She and her colleagues have encountered challenges among incoming kindergarteners.
“My colleagues and I have noticed a downward trend in readiness, particularly with adaptive skills,” Thomas said. “Not necessarily the academic skills that you are most familiar with, like how many letters and sounds do they know coming to kindergarten. It’s mostly the adaptive skills crucial for overall success in kindergarten. Things like allowing them to participate fully in the classroom. … Things like just being ready to be in a structured environment. Those are the kinds of things that we’re sort of noticing a downward trend in.”
Several studies have pointed to the COVID-19 pandemic as a potential cause of such developmental issues, as young children may have missed out on formative learning opportunities.
Alabama’s Early Intervention Services has reported an increase in referrals every year since the pandemic, but Thomas feels there has been a decline in Homewood parents seeking early intervention.
“Birth to 3, you usually call Child Find if you notice that your child is delayed in any one of the five big areas,” Thomas said. “And then from 3 to kindergarten, intervention services are handled through the local education agency, which would be the school you’re zoned for. But again, in kindergarten, we’re sort of getting all these kids that haven’t had these early intervention services, and it’s just the key. A lot of times, once kids get to kindergarten with any kind of delay, it’s really, really tough to get them caught up.”
The five areas include cognitive, physical, communication, social or emotional, and adaptive development. From birth to 3, children with a delay of 25% or more are eligible to receive support through the state. Children with a suspected or diagnosed delay can be referred to Child Find.
To increase awareness of the available options, Thomas created a kindergarten readiness presentation for Homewood and shared it with local preschools. The presentation is modeled after readiness presentations, student camps and caregiver advice offered by other local schools.
“Students and families were more prepared to enter kindergarten and our school community, which improved our school environment, family engagement, student achievement, relationships, and student behavior,” she said.
Thomas hopes to expand Homewood’s kindergarten readiness efforts to emphasize the importance of early intervention for speech delays, mental health issues and adaptive skills such as toileting and self-regulation.
To that end, she mentioned that parents will have opportunities over the summer to gain classroom experience before their children start school, including a kindergarten new parent night to address parental concerns.
For more information about Homewood City Schools’ education support, visit homewood.k12.al.us/hcs.
