Early Learning
Overview
Children’s brains and bodies develop rapidly in the first five years of life. This means early childhood is the best time to create a stronger future for our families and our community.
At the Early Learning Department of Fresno Unified School District, we know that all adults in a child’s life can help create the nurturing and engaging connections children need. We provide child-centered environments and high-quality educational programs that value and respect the language, culture, and needs of all students, families, staff, and communities.
FRESNO EARLY LEARNING MISSION
To ensure children of all abilities in Fresno Unified School District have an equitable start for college, career, and life readiness, the Early Learning Department provides nurturing, child-centered environments and high-quality educational programs that value and respect the needs, languages, and cultures of all students, families, staff, and community.
Registration
You can now register for all of our early learning programs online. After you have gathered all required documents, please click on the button below to begin the registration process.
If you have any questions, please call 559-457-3416 or email us at EarlyLearning@fresnounified.org.
Please click here for a step-by-step guide to completing the online application.
Our Core Beliefs
- Every child develops (socially, emotionally, cognitively, linguistically, and physically) at an individual rate, possesses unique characteristics, and exhibits an array of talents and interests regardless of family background, culture, special need, experience, or ability.
- Purposeful play is an essential vehicle for developing self-regulation as well as for promoting language, cognition, social competence, and critical thinking skills
- Social, emotional, and cognitive development (including executive function) is foundational to academic learning.
- Collective responsibility and collaboration among instruction teams to foster a caring, nurturing, safe and secure setting to focus on building the child as a whole, while supporting their development and learning to achieve their greatest potential.
- Effective early literacy instruction provides children with developmentally appropriate settings, materials, experiences, and social support encouraging oral language and early forms of reading and writing to develop into conventional literacy.
- The quality of the teacher-child relationship serves as a critical role in social and emotional development and has potential to exert a positive or negative influence on children’s ability to succeed in school
- Meaningful family engagement in children’s early development and learning supports school readiness and later academic success.
- Collecting and interpreting data through ongoing authentic assessment is fundamental to understanding a child’s developmental and learning accomplishments and needs.