What are the days and times that classes are available?
Preschool is Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from either 9:00 to 11:30 AM or 1:00 to 3:30 PM.
For the 2024 - 2025 school year, Preschool will run Monday to Friday. Our predicted hours will be 9:00 AM to 11:30 AM and 12:45 to 3:15 PM.
What does Preschool for All mean?
Preschool for All serves children who are screened and identified as not progressing at a rate anticipated for potential success in kindergarten due to one or more at-risk variables. At-risk factors can include delays identified on screening instruments in the areas of intellectual processing, academics, speech/communication, social-emotional development, and/or motor development. In addition, family environmental factors such as low income, homelessness, parent/sibling with a disability, parent education level, family structure, non-English speaking household, and others are also considered when identifying at-risk eligibility.
What are the parts of being screened for Preschool for All?
Children will be screened using an in-person screener called the Brigance, Parents will fill out parent questionnaires, call ASQ and ASQ- SE, Parents will complete a parent interview. Parents will provide financial documents and school district residency documents.
How many students will be in my child's classroom?
Classrooms can have up to 20 students. Generally, we like to try to keep our preschool classrooms as close to 15 students as possible.
Do you divide students by age?
No, we do mixed-age grouping in all of our classrooms. We do try our best to have an equal number of children at each.
What does “blended classroom environments” mean?
Our tuition-based students are in a classroom with students who also received special education services from the school district. Everyone is learning together.
Does my child have to be toilet-trained to attend preschool?
We encourage students to be toilet trained, but accidents do happen. We will accept students who are not fully toilet trained.
What curriculum is used?
We follow a play- based, research based, developmentally appropriate curriculum called the Creative Curriculum. We also are aligned with Illinois Early Learning Standards in Literacy, Math, Social Emotional, Cognitive, and Motor Skills. We also expose students to district curricula such as Jolly Phonics, Second Step, Zaner- Bloser Handwriting, and Eureka Math which are used in upper grades. We also expose students to district curriculum so that they will be prepared in their futures.
What type of progress monitoring is there?
We use the Teaching Strategies Gold Assessment which we give students three times a year, and we share those results with parents/guardians. The Teaching Strategies Gold serves as our report card that families get three times a year at the same time as K-5.
How many staff are in each room?
Each classroom is staffed with a Special Education Teacher/Early Childhood Teacher and 1-2 paraprofessionals depending on the number of students.
How much does it cost?
Little Spartans tuition is $195 per month from September to May (10 payments). There is also a $50 dollar yearly registration fee that is part of registration (which is refundable if you don’t attend the program).
For the 2024 - 2025 school year, tuition will be $250 per month from September to May (10 payments). September payment is due before a student's first day of attendance in August. There is also a $50 yearly registration fee that is part of registration (which is refundable if you don’t attend the program).
Can my student take the bus?
We do not have a paid-to-ride bus option at this time.
What if I have concerns about my child's development in areas such as speech, cognitive, and motor?
Any Sycamore family, living in the school district boundaries that have concerns about their child's development can schedule one community screener. We have set appointments five times a year. Please contact
Mrs. Niamh Welp who can set you up with an appointment on a scheduled date.
Do we have any before and/or after-school care?
The district is proud to offer Oscar Jr. which provides care from 7:30 AM - 5:00 PM. Please contact our
OSCAR Director of Out of School Care, Mrs. Katie Newhouse. Oscar Jr. is the childcare portion of the program, and those classrooms are located next to the preschool.
Do I need to provide school supplies?
What daily supplies does my child need?
We ask that a change of clothes is kept at school. Each day students need to bring their own snack and water bottle.
How do I communicate with my student's teacher?
Teachers post pictures and videos of what happens at preschool weekly through an app called ParentSquare. This is also a way for parents/guardians and teachers to message back and forth to each other.
Do I have to live in Sycamore to attend Little Spartans?
You need to live within the Sycamore School District 427 boundaries to attend Little Spartans. So you could live in the towns that surround Sycamore as long as your address is within the school boundaries. To verify that your address is within the boundaries, please view our
District Boundary Map.
Do you have scholarship opportunities?
We are excited to be working with the Sycamore Education Foundation (SEF) on the creation of scholarship opportunities for our students. Questions about scholarships can be directed to
Rachel Sauber, SEF Executive Director.
If I have additional questions, who do I reach out to?
Please contact Mrs. Niamh Welp, Early Childhood Administrator at (815) 899-8129 or
nwelp@syc427.org.
