The Florida Department of Education established a kindergarten readiness screening (FLKRS) based upon standards adopted by the State Board of Education.  These standards describe what children should know and be able to do at the end of their pre-kindergarten experiences in the areas of physical health, approaches to learning, social and emotional development, language and communication, emergent literacy, cognitive development and general knowledge, and motor development.

The FLKRS consists of a subset of the Early Childhood Observation System (ECHOS) and two measures from the Dynamic Indicators of the Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) and is administered within the first 30 days of kindergarten.  ECHOS is a brief observational screening instrument that is designated to measure a child's performance across seven developmental areas that are aligned with the VPK Education Standards.  The two DIBELS measures, Letter Naming Fluency (LNF) and Initial Sound Fluency (ISF) are screening instruments designed to measure specific skills that are important in learning to read and that are specifically aligned with Florida's VPK Education Standards in the area of emergent literacy.

FLKRS data are used to determine the readiness of children entering kindergarten, and provides teachers with information for planning classroom instruction. It will also give parents useful information about their child.  This data will also be used to annually calculate a readiness rate for private and public school providers of the VPK Education Program.

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