Abstract

Families look to educators to help support their child’s transition from preschool to kindergarten. Professionals can look to families for important information about their child that will facilitate a smooth transition. The rapprochement of multiple community members (e.g., parents, family, professionals, etc.) coming together to create an assessment framework that leads to a better understanding of the child’s skills from multiple perspectives is the focus of this article. An approach to supporting families and children who are transitioning from preschool to kindergarten that uses assessment-based planning is described. The origin of the family component of the AEPS (Assessment, Evaluation, and Programming System)—new AEPS-3 family tools for transition—and, finally, implications for using the parental partnership tools with families of young children as they approach kindergarten will be explained.