As a part of the Niagara QIP grant through the Peter and Elizabeth C. Tower Foundation, Niagara University brings together critical stakeholders in Niagara County's early childhood community to participate in their annual Kindergarten Transition Summit. The goal of the summit is to discuss the most effective methods to prepare children and families for the transition from child care or preschool into kindergarten.

The Kindergarten Transition Summit provides participants with the chance to hear from expert presenters and panelists, in addition to learning about opportunities to create and collaborate with kindergarten transition teams among Niagara County school districts and childcare centers.

The overall goal of the event is to build kindergarten transition teams between school districts and preschools and childcare center programs as a means to increase the school-readiness of children, giving early childhood leaders and policymakers the opportunity to look collaboratively and analytically at Niagara County’s current transition practices, and see what research has shown to be beneficial for children starting elementary school.

Ultimately, the summit allows stakeholders, community organizations and early childhood educators to gain a fuller understanding of the importance of the transition process, build relationships, identify current transition practices, and explore next steps within their own programs and with partners in the community.

To date, over 100 stakeholders, including representatives from eight Niagara County school districts, including school superintendents, principals, kindergarten teachers and preschool teachers, as well as area childcare center owners and directors.

Through post-summit feedback questionnaires, it has been shown that over half of the participants feel the summit has deepened their knowledge of what systemic and integrated transitions to kindergarten look like and assisted in the learning process of how to strengthen current transition practices.