Kindergarten lays the foundation for formal education. To do well in school, children need to acquire both academic and non-academic skills-like getting along with others and sitting still and focusing. Getting ready for kindergarten really begins at birth. When minds are young, they are developing rapidly, and every experience can have a significant impact. Parents, in effect, are their children's first and most important teachers.

United Way of King County knows that the more prepared children are to make the transition to kindergarten, the better their chances of doing well throughout school. We also know that when parents nurture their children and know what to expect from them at different stages, they are more likely to give their children the confidence and skills they need to thrive in school.

Download a Getting School Ready brochure, available in seven languages, to learn more about getting kids ready for school and preparing our schools and our community to be ready for kids. This guide has been made available through a partnership that includes United Way of King County, as well as the SOAR, The Boeing Company, CHILD Profile (a program of the Washington State Department of Health), Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, and Puget Sound ESD.

To learn more about transitioning to kindergarten, view the following sample of publications, compiled by the National Child Care Information Center (NCCIC), a national clearinghouse and technical assistance center linking parents, providers, policy-makers, researchers, and the public to early care and education information.

• " Websites Related to Promising Programs, Transition, and School Readiness " (March 2006), a New Transition Alert, by the National Early ChildhoodTransitionCenter.
• " Appendix A: State Survey Data-Program Standards: Support services required for all programs " (2009) in The State of Preschool: 2009 State Preschool Yearbook, by W. Steven Barnett, Dale J. Epstein, Allison H. Friedman, Rachel Sansanelli and Jason T. Hustedt, published by the National Institute for Early Education Research.
• "A Parent's Guide to a Successful Kindergarten Transition" (2005) in Student Achievement, May 2005, by The National Education Association (NEA).
• Readiness: School, Family, and Community Connections: Annual Synthesis 2004 (2004), by Martha Boethel, National Center for Family and Community Connections with Schools, Southwest Educational Development Laboratory.
• Planning for Terrific Transitions: A Guide for Transition-to-School Teams (2004), developed by Southeastern Regional Vision for Educators (SERVE), provides information of an eight hour training program designed to help learners improve their transition processes through more effective planning, implementation, and evaluation.
• "Transitioning to School: Policy, Practice, & Reality" (Summer 2004), in The Evaluation Exchange Vol. X, No. 2, by Robert Pianta, published by the Harvard Family Research Project.
• "Chapter 7: Transitions to Kindergarten" (Spring 2004), in The Business of Early Care and Education in Illinois: Providers' Tools for Improving Quality, by the Chicago Metropolis 2020.
• Successful Kindergarten Transition: Your Guide to Connecting Children, Families, and Schools (2003), by Robert C. Pianta and Marcia Kraft-Sayre, NationalCenter for Early Development and Learning (NCEDL), published by Brookes Publishing.
• Transition to Kindergarten " (Winter 2002), Early Childhood Research and Policy Briefs Vol. 2, No. 2, by the NationalCenter for Early Development and Learning (NCEDL.
• Continuity in Early Childhood: A Framework for Home, School, and Community Linkages (2002), 3rd ed., developed by the Regional Educational Laboratories' Early Childhood Collaboration Network.
• Starting School: Effective Transitions " (Fall 2001), in Early Childhood Research and Practice Vol. 3, No. 2, by Sue Dockett and Bob Perry.
• The Transition from Preschool to Kindergarten , a Web site of the Early Childhood Educators' and Family Web Corner maintained by PaTTAN (Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network).