Data To Help Support Vulnerable Students

It’s an indication of what can be done with children before they start school. The province released its Early Development Instrument, collected by teachers in 2012-13. It revealed almost 34 per cent of South Shore primary students were vulnerable in one development area. They include emotional maturity, social competence, communication skills and general knowledge, physical health and well-being and language and cognitive development. Director of programs and student services, Jeff DeWolfe, says it gets people talking about support. He says, “If you have a community that doesn’t have a strong early child centre or daycare programing then it may show up in the development in some of these students, so that would be an example of something you might try to work with other agencies to provide.” The numbers help people think about other resources and using them to reduce the amount of vulnerable children. All school boards are expected to have early child centres supporting development by next year.