1. Each school district shall administer the teaching strategies gold early childhood assessment to every resident prekindergarten or four-year-old child whose parent or guardian enrolls the child in the district, and shall administer a valid and reliable universal screening instrument, as prescribed by the department of education, to every kindergarten student enrolled in the district not later than the date specified in section 257.6, subsection 1. The assessment shall be aligned with state early learning standards and preschool programs shall be encouraged to administer the assessment at least at the beginning and end of the preschool program, with the assessment information entered into the statewide longitudinal data system. The department shall work to develop agreements with head start programs to incorporate similar information about four-year-old children served by head start into the statewide longitudinal data system.

Terms Used In Iowa Code 279.60

  • Child: includes child by adoption. See Iowa Code 4.1
  • Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
  • School: means an agency of the state or political subdivision of the state, individual, partnership, company, firm, society, trust, association, corporation, or any combination which meets any of the following criteria:
  • state: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories, and the words "United States" may include the said district and territories. See Iowa Code 4.1
  • Student: means a person who enrolls in or seeks to enroll in a course of instruction offered or conducted by a school. See Iowa Code 261B.2
  • year: means twelve consecutive months. See Iowa Code 4.1
 2. The school district shall also collect information from each parent, guardian, or legal custodian of a kindergarten student enrolled in the district on whether the student attended preschool. Each school district shall report the preschool information collected to the department of education in the manner prescribed by the department not later than January 1 of that school year. The early childhood Iowa office in the department of management shall have access to the raw data. The department of education shall review the information submitted pursuant to this section and shall submit its findings and recommendations annually in a report to the governor, the general assembly, the early childhood Iowa state board, and the early childhood Iowa area boards.
 3. Each school district shall administer the Iowa assessments, created by the state university of Iowa, to all students enrolled in grade ten.