School entrance examination
School entry examinations (short: S1 or SEU ) or school enrollment examinations (short: ESU ) are a mandatory task of the health department in most federal states . All children of a given year are examined by doctors from the health department before they start school. In the larger municipalities, the health authorities have their own department or a separate subject area for all school medical matters, the so-called. Child and Youth Health Service (KJGD). The criteria of the SEU are usually set at the state level by the responsible ministries or other state institutions on the basis of corresponding school laws or health service laws .
Scope and measures
The school entrance examination includes the documentation of participation in the preventive measures ( vaccinations and pediatric early diagnosis examinations), as well as the physical examination e.g. B. with a stethoscope , and the recording of the state of health with a focus on those examinations that are important for participation in class and school success (vision, hearing, behavior, coordination, language development). In addition, chronic diseases as well as height and weight are recorded.
Interventional tests (e.g. blood tests or vaccinations) are not carried out.
If necessary, references to certain funding measures are given. After the examination, a recommendation is made about the child's enrollment , but a decision ultimately rests with the legal guardian and the school management.
Documentation and statistics
The data from the school entrance examinations provide valuable information on the health of an entire year. Since school entrance examinations are usually carried out in a very limited time frame and with limited examination means, the validity and completeness of the examination results are only partially sufficient for epidemiological requirements. Nevertheless, due to the lack of alternative data, school entry examinations are an important tool for health reporting .
In the federal states there are a large number of examination and documentation methods, also because the federal states adapt the school entrance examination to changed requirements or scientific findings. One topic of the current social pediatric discussion in 2004 was the question of bringing the examination content forward in order to recognize deficits in earlier stages of development and treat them more effectively than afterwards or to gain more time for therapy up to school enrollment.
Legal basis and scope
- The legal basis in Germany is country-specific, since schools and education as well as the public health service are federally regulated.
Situation in other countries
United States
In the United States , a school entrance exam takes place before entry into kindergarten , i.e., five-year-olds. Instead of a school medical examination, there is an appointment with the school nurse . Since disabled and chronically ill children in the USA are taught integratively in mainstream schools , so that illness is not a reason for rejecting a child, the focus of this assessment is on checking the completeness of vaccination records . In addition, a health certificate from a resident pediatrician is required, which must be presented again later every year.
The mental, social and emotional school ability in the USA is not determined in the context of a health examination, but in a separate examination carried out by a teacher or school psychologist. In individual cases, the recommendation can be made to postpone a child for a year and take an alternative school preparation program such as B. to attend a preschool or a begindergarten .
After starting school, immigrant children usually also take a language test to check whether the child should be accepted into the school's English promotion program.
Web links
- Examination for school enrollment - kindergesundheit-info.de: independent information offer of the Federal Center for Health Education (BZgA)
