For those parents who are eager to introduce the love of reading to their child and want them fully prepared for kindergarten, Federal Way Public Schools plans to make available this spring a new tool via the school website to help with just that.

Already in the hands of kindergarten teachers and school administrators is the Kindergarten Framework — a comprehensive guide for teachers, parents, administrators and caretakers to help in building a sustainable and innovative kindergarten classroom.

“It’s a pretty comprehensive lens,” said Luisa Sanchez-Nilsen, the director of Federal Way Public Schools’ Early Learning. “It really gives a good strong foundation. I’m hopeful parents will love this.”

Following three years as the elementary reading specialist for the Washington state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, Sanchez-Nilsen came to Federal Way Public Schools last September to lead the new Early Learning Department.

“Early learning is new in a sense that it has a lot of momentum,” Sanchez-Nilsen said. “I’m excited about this opportunity. There are only a few states doing early learning well and (Washington state) is one of them.

“We have looked at how we define early learning in Federal Way,” she said. “We really realized that literacy begins at birth and so it’s about promoting those basic essential relationship skills that you want all children to benefit from. The first 2,000 days of a child’s life matters.”

Sanchez-Nilsen said the school district’s Early Learning is focused on “building a comprehensive system as it aligns from pre-K to 12th grades.”

“As an early learning department, we provide resources, expertise and structure, so that all children of the Federal Way school district are prepared for life,” she explained.

The department provides specific resources “meant to serve as a guide for all, to create a common language to support the implementation of a high quality early learning pre-K to third grade comprehensive system.”

Federal Way Public Schools comprises 23 elementary schools, serving more than 1,800 kindergarteners. All kindergarten teachers are trained on the new framework. The guide was designed via a collaborative process that started last September between the district’s Early Learning Team, their Early Learning Advisory Team and kindergarten teachers representing each of the elementary schools.

There are five research-based components that make up the structure of the framework. These comprise Standards, Assessment, Instruction, Leadership and System-wide Commitment, otherwise known as SAILS.

“These essential components anchor the future comprehensive pre-K to third grade plans,” Sanchez-Nilsen said. “SAILS provides a systemic model for improving instruction.”

Sanchez-Nilsen said the framework gives a common foundation and language for teachers and caregivers and gives common expectations for kindergarten classrooms across the district.

“It creates a common vision in our district,” she said. “It provides an implementation action plan, which is teacher specific and principal specific.

“It hones in on key developmental stages of a child for learning in the domains of physical, social-emotional and cognitive language,” Sanchez-Nilsen added. “For parents, it gives clear yardsticks or developmental benchmarks for those domains. It gives quick tips on how to set up a classroom and quick tips to parents on how to communicate with their children, play with their children, in a way that teaches literacy.”

When parents utilize the framework starting this spring, Sanchez-Nilsen said they will be able to access a list of kindergarten readiness guidelines to follow in preparing their children.

Something that has been key to the development and implementation of the framework, Sanchez-Nilsen explained, has been the Early Learning Advisory Team.

“We have (the team) looking at the parent engagement component,” Sanchez-Nilsen said. “The team is open to community members.”

Several of the team members are parent representatives. Others are kindergarten teachers and school administrators.

The team meets regularly to plan on a variety of ways to reach out to parents and keep them actively involved.