If your child has been getting Early Intervention or preschool special education, the move into kindergarten can feel like the floor shifting. The therapist who came to your living room, the small preschool room, the team that knew your child by name — a lot of it changes at once. That disorientation is normal. It doesn’t mean something is going wrong.
It’s not just a new school. It’s a different law.
Early Intervention (birth to age 3) runs under Part C of IDEA. Preschool and school-age special education (age 3 and up) runs under Part B. The two parts are built around different ideas, and that’s why the experience feels so different.
Part C is family-centered. The plan is called an IFSP — an Individualized Family Service Plan — and it’s written around your whole family: services often come to your home, and the goals can include things like helping you support your child’s development.
Part B is education-centered. The plan becomes an IEP — an Individualized Education Program — and it’s anchored to one question: what does this child need to access and make progress in school? Services usually move into the building, the team gets bigger, and the language tilts toward academics and the classroom.
None of that means less support is coming. But it does mean the frame changes, and parents who walk in expecting “the same thing, new building” often leave the first meeting rattled. What stays constant: your child’s right to a free appropriate public education, and your right to be a full, equal member of the team — the same as every other person at that table.
The transition conference — and why you ask for it early
The law builds a planning step into this handoff: a transition conference before your child turns three, so there’s no gap between Part C and Part B. The exact timing varies by state — it’s keyed to the months before the third birthday, and states have some discretion in the window — so the move that protects you isn’t memorizing a number. It’s asking your service coordinator directly: “When does my child’s transition conference happen, and what do I need to have ready for it?” Put the request in writing, and ask it sooner than feels necessary.
One question matters more than any other here: “Will there be a gap in services between the IFSP ending and the IEP starting?” The answer should be no. If anyone’s answer is vague, that’s your signal to get the dates in writing.
The kindergarten IEP is built on a fresh evaluation — bring your evidence
Because Part B asks a different question, the team will usually run a new evaluation rather than just carrying the IFSP forward. That evaluation — once you give written consent — runs on a timeline (commonly 60 calendar days from consent, though some states set their own), so it helps to consent early rather than letting it drift toward the start of school.
You are not a passive observer in that process. Bring everything: the most recent IFSP, any private evaluations or therapy reports, and — this is the part parents underrate — your own dated notes on what your child actually does. “He needs a few minutes of warning before any transition or he melts down” is data. “She stops talking entirely in a group of more than three kids” is data. Specific, behavioral, dated observations are much harder to wave off than “he has a hard time with change.” What researchers who study this handoff consistently find is that the families who carry their documentation forward — rather than assuming the system will — get smoother transitions with fewer service gaps.
Two questions to put to the team
“What will my child’s day actually look like — how much time in the general kindergarten classroom, how much pull-out, and who delivers each service?”
“Which of the supports that are working right now will carry into the IEP, and which won’t — and why?”
If a support is dropping off, you want the reason on the record, not discovered in October.
Try this tonight
Find your child’s most recent IFSP. Next to each goal, write one plain sentence: what is this actually for? “This one is so she can calm herself down without me.” “This one is so he can follow a two-step direction.” That short list is your translation key — it’s what lets you walk into the kindergarten meeting and say “here’s what’s working and why it matters,” instead of trying to decode the new paperwork in real time.