Helping Families Transition from Home to a School Setting

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Georgia Family Connection Partnership Evaluation, Results, and Accountability Team
Research Summary 15—Summer 2025

 

Transitioning from a home to school setting is a significant period in a family’s life and a critical moment in childhood development. It also marks the beginning of a family’s relationship with the education system. These transitions affect a child’s social-emotional, cognitive, and academic development—and overall well-being.

Transitions, as described by Laurie Harper, associate professor of education at Salve Regina University, are changes in routine or environment and the process of moving from one routine or location to another—interactive processes that occur over time. The stages of a successful transition are awareness that change is coming, settling into the new environment or activity, and then becoming fully established in the new environment.

Individual, family, and environmental factors all impact transition. Cultural perspectives on childhood, academic expectations, family socio-economic status, individual temperament, personal competencies and family expectations of education can all influence transition to pre-K.

The Georgia Family Connection Partnership (GaFCP) Evaluation, Results, and Accountability (ERA) Team recently examined research and recommendations regarding this transition period.

Transitions and Children

Children transitioning to pre-K are progressing to a new learning environment, often in a public elementary school, and to a new role in the community structure if they’re moving to out-of-home care for the first time.

Transitions can be difficult as a child evolves to the identity of student and new dynamics develop between home and school. The more difficult they are the greater adjustment challenges and stress for children, families, and teachers. Children who experience continuity in early education are more likely to demonstrate increased motivation, improved relationships, and higher academic achievement.

Some common concerns among children during a transition include establishing friendships, the larger classroom size, school structure and limitations, classroom rules and routines, and demands of teachers and administrators. According to a study by professors from the University at Albany and Purdue University, when families are involved in the transition process, children had greater academic achievement, fewer problem behaviors, and lower levels of hyperactivity. Psychology professors from Lund University in Sweden found that children also have better social emotional development and positive attachment when they have good relationships with their teacher.

The ERA summary sites a study that found that kindergarten teachers are more likely to provide transition support than pre-K and early education teachers. Transition support like family home visits are more common among pre-K teachers who work with primarily low-income populations. However, they’re less likely to offer classroom visits and school orientation events. Previous studies found that by providing a broader array of transition support, including classroom and home visits helped provide the greatest support for transitions.

When teachers provide support with transitions, children can experience greater social emotional development, better handle conflict, and more successfully negotiate relationships. When teachers are not adequately prepared to support families and children through transitions, then children are less likely to thrive cognitively and socially.

When teachers in West Virginia implemented intensive support interventions—before school and at the end of the school year home visits, regular communication between teachers and families, and invitations for school visits before school starts—the gap between high- and low-income students’ math scores was reduced by 53%. These interventions were particularly helpful when working with children who may have experienced trauma.

Transitions and Families and Caregivers

Parent engagement is a key component of successful transition to pre-K, and two ways to effectively support families is through home visits and regular communication. Families often ask for more information about how to help their child, what to expect, and how to prepare themselves and their children in transitioning to pre-K. They often don’t fully understand the new school structure and the teacher’s expectations for both parents and students. Parents and caregivers want to have an active role, so it’s essential to include them for a successful transition.

Children from low-income families often face greater challenges with transition due to previous experiences with schools, a lack of resources to prepare for school, and time and energy constraints on family members. Parents and caregivers are more comfortable when teachers initiate connection and communication. Professors from Lund University found that when parents actively participate and are engaged in the transition process, outcomes are better for children and families. They also found that when there is no defined protocol for transition, teachers and families are less satisfied and struggle more.

Home visits and teacher communication with families can help families provide better support to children during the transition process. Parents are more likely to share information and insights about their children during home visits rather than during teacher conferences. When these visits occur at the beginning of the school year, teachers are more prepared to help support children and have deeper understanding of their students.

Recommendations For Parents and Caregivers

Parents and caregivers play a critical role in creating successful and smooth transitions. Here are some recommendations:

  • Provide positive verbal and non-verbal communication to students about school.
  • Provide opportunities for families to explore school grounds before school begins.
  • Schedule visits with the teacher in the classroom prior to starting the program.
  • Schedule play experiences with future—or new—classmates and other children.
  • Engage parents and other adults in conversations about school, attendance, and activities.
  • Create a broad support system for children and parents.
  • Practice the new routines prior to starting pre-K and school; for example: “Time to get up.”
  • Help parents understand how to advocate for their children.
  • Regularly engage with teachers.
  • Include regular discussions about upcoming school routines.

Recommendations For Teachers and Schools

One study cited by the ERA team recommends that pre-K teachers should receive training and administrative support on increasing transition support for children and families, after learning that kindergarten teachers offered more transition support than pre-K teachers. Other recommendations—particularly for teachers and schools serving low-income and more diverse populations—include data sharing with other programs, home visits, school orientation, and classroom visits.

Providing training for teachers on how to help support students and families through transitions is critical for successful transition experiences. Another study the ERA summary cites found that most pre-K teachers were using only 12 of the 25 specific practices they were asked about. The school administration, program rules, and classroom composition significantly impact the number of transition supports teachers utilized. Summer programs that provide an opportunity to get to know the teacher before the first day of school help to provide a more successful transition. And programs that offer personalized, proactive, and intensive support have a more positive impact on children and families.

Kaplan Learning Center offers recommendations for teachers to help smooth and create more supportive transitions for children transitioning to pre-K. Recommendations include providing children with engagement and a voice in the process, making the transition engaging and fun, and creating space and time for transformation to occur:

  • Create a predictable morning routine for children each day with visual images to help students identify where they are in the process.
  • Allow children to have some control and include them in decisions about morning greeting and transition periods throughout the day.
  • Help children form buddy systems and identify an arrival buddy to begin making friendships.
  • Greet each child every morning using child-approved greeting.
  • Create an individual space, like a cubby, for children to store their individual belongings.
  • Use pocket charts, paper cutouts, and other fun and engaging tools to let children mark their entrance and exit from school, their mood at the moment, or other feelings and transitions.
  • Play emotional identification games and activities throughout the day, but particularly at the beginning of the day.
  • Talk about emotions to help children name emotions and feelings. Read books that help with emotional problem-solving.
  • Include family pictures and items to create continuity between home and school.
  • Find stuffed animals and toys that are easily accessible and allow children to utilize them.
  • Families and teachers communicate daily. When initiated by teachers, this can help improve transitions.
  • Schedule home visits at the beginning and end of the school year to share expectations and insights about children model ways like reading to engage with children, and build relationships with families.

Read GaFCP’s ERA teams’s Research Summary 15: Transitioning from Home to Early Childhood Education and Pre-K.

 

Contact:
Bill Valladares
GaFCP Communications Director
404-739-0043
william@gafcp.org

Reg Griffin
DECAL Communications Director
404-656-0239
reg.griffin@decal.ga.gov


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Bright from the Start: Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL) is responsible for meeting the child care and early education needs of Georgia’s children and their families. It administers the nationally recognized Georgia’s Pre-K Program, licenses child care centers and home-based child care, administers Georgia’s Childcare and Parent Services (CAPS) program, federal nutrition programs, and manages Quality Rated, Georgia’s community powered child care rating system.

The department also houses the Head Start State Collaboration Office, distributes federal funding to enhance the quality and availability of child care, and collaborates with Georgia child care resource and referral agencies and organizations throughout the state to enhance early care and education.