A Survey on Cooperation between Early Childhood Facilities and Elementary Schools regarding Children with Disabilities

This survey aimed to reveal the current conditions of cooperation between early childhood facilities and elementary schools regarding children with disabilities. A nationwide questionnaire was administered to 172 nursery schools (public), 242 nursery schools (private), 200 kindergartens (public), 481 kindergartens (private), and 592 elementary schools. Overall, for cooperation with elementary school for children with disabilities, the percentage of practice with kindergarten (public) was highest among early childhood facilities. In particular, for “Exchange activities between early childhood facilities and elementary schools” and “Introduction of approach curriculum,” the percentage of practice with kindergarten (public) was higher when compared with that in other early childhood facilities. The newly found information in this survey was that nursery schools (public) were most likely to take advantage of the “Individual education program.” The major problem was that nursery school and kindergarten teachers were willing to cooperate on early childhood education and care with elementary school teachers, but elementary school teachers answered that it was difficult to cooperate with many of the early childhood facilities. The ideal method for cooperation between early childhood facilities and elementary schools needs to be considered within each community.本研究は平成26年度文部科学省委託「幼児教育の改善・充実調査研究」（研究代表者：山崎 晃）及び平成25～27年度科学研究費・基盤研究（C）（研究課題番号：25381325，研究代表者：山崎 晃）の助成を受けて行われた研究成果の一部である