Partners
Funders
Information Sessions
For Your Community
Contact Us

Countdown to Kindergarten engages families, educators and the community in a citywide effort to enhance early learning opportunities and to support the transition into kindergarten.  Mayor Menino, the Boston School Committee and Superintendent Johnson partner with 28 local organizations to implement a school readiness campaign that helps families participate actively in their children’s education right from the start, understand the value of kindergarten, and learn how to choose schools and then register in the Boston Public Schools. In Boston, our work has promoted teacher collaboration on school readiness issues; doubled the percent of families visiting schools to make informed registration decisions; and increased the percentage of children who enter BPS at kindergarten rather than first grade. It has also resulted in more schools being ready to engage families.

Countdown’s goals are as follows:

• Ensure that families of four and five-year-olds take advantage of the academic and social benefits kindergarten provides, by raising public awareness about the importance of kindergarten, the availability of full-school-day kindergarten, and the kindergarten curriculum within the Boston Public Schools (BPS). 
• Make the process of choosing schools, registering and entering kindergarten within BPS clear and welcoming for all families.
• Lay the groundwork for primary caretakers (parents, grandparents, guardians) to be active partners in their children’s education in BPS elementary schools and beyond.
• Coordinate and expand social and learning activities that help children transition from home or pre-school into kindergarten.