School Readiness Pipeline

Thrive in 5’s School Readiness Pipeline is a groundbreaking initiative for achieving universal child development screening for young children in the city of Boston.

Support Children & Families: Build community capacity to screen children early for potential developmental delays, and use the ASQ as an opportunity for family engagement, education, and referral to services. Help families take an active approach to gaining more knowledge about their child’s development, and advocating for the resources necessary to support their children’s school readiness.
Drive Policy & Systems Change: Create a universal screening system in order to gain a better understanding of the developmental progress of young children in Boston to inform funding and policy decisions.

Peer-to-Peer Parent Screeners – Peer-to-peer parent screeners connect to families in their communities, conduct the ASQ screening during home visits or in neighborhood-based settings, and offer resources and information for families based on screening results. Parent screeners represent multiple cultures and languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese, Vietnamese, Mandarin, and Cape Verdean Creole), creating connections to isolated communities and ensuring screening is available to diverse families.
Parents Screening Their Own Children – With the support of trained staff, parents complete the ASQ screening about their child on their own during parent-child playgroup sessions. Screening helps parents and caregivers understand more about their child’s developmental strengths and challenges. Parents are also connected to community resources and provided with activities to engage in with their children at home.
Early Education and Care Providers – The Pipeline partners with early education and care providers to gather data from ASQ screening conducted in their programs, generally when a child enters the program or moves to a new classroom. Through their involvement in the Pipeline, early education programs are increasing their capacity to use the screening process to better engage families in supporting their children’s learning and development at home.

Trained and supported 16 parent screeners working in two pilot neighborhoods – Allston/Brighton and Dorchester – who have conducted approximately 400 screens with families in these communities.
Partnered with 11 family engagement organizations to offer ASQ screening during playgroups and other family activities. They have conducted approximately 400 screens with families.
Partnered with 8 early education and care providers to gather data from approximately 200 children screened in their programs.
Developed a series of picture-based child development handouts to share ideas about how to better support children’s development and school readiness with families, particularly for families with low literacy levels.
Formed a learning community with parent screeners and early education partners to maximize how partners use ASQ screening as a family engagement opportunity and to ensure children and families’ needs are met.
Influenced the activities and opportunities that community-based organizations are providing for families with young children. For example, based on initial screening results from children in the Dorchester community, Fields Corner Children Thrive planned workshops for families that supported fine motor skill and problem solving development.