Carter County schools will hold several events next week to sign new students up for kindergarten, Head Start and Pre-K.

Registration events are scheduled April 7-9 from 7 a.m. until 2 p.m. at the Elizabethton Parks and Recreation Building, 300 W. Mill St. in Elizabethton.

Families registering children from programs at Hampton, Little Milligan and Valley Forge Elementary schools should attend the event on Tuesday, April 7. Those registering children for the programs at Happy Valley, Central or Keenburg Elementary schools need to register at the event on Wednesday, April 8. To register children for programs at Hunter, Unaka or Cloudland Elementary schools, families should attend the Thursday, April 9 event. Registration for the programs will not held at individual schools.

To be eligible for kindergarten, children must turn five years old by Aug. 15.

To register for Head Start children must be 4 years old by Aug. 15. Eligible children who are three years old before August 15 will be enrolled if space is available in the program.

For Pre-K programs, children must turn four years old by August 15 to enroll. Eligible children who are three years old before August 15 will be enrolled if space is available at the Little Milligan site only.

“If you want to register for the Head Start or Pre-K program you have to bring proof of income because that is one of the things they use to determine eligibility,” said Amy McKinney, secretary for the Special Education division of the school system. Both of the programs require proof of annual family income.

Families registering children also need to bring the child’s birth certificate, social security card and the child’s immunization records.

The school system will also conduct a variety of screenings during registration so families are asked to bring the child with them to the event. Registering children will be given speech, vision and hearing screenings, McKinney said.

Nurses will also be on site to do some health screenings for the children, including weight and height checks.

The school system is also participating in Child Find, an ongoing effort of the Special Education Department, to locate children between the ages of 3 and 21 who have a disability or are intellectually gifted and not enrolled in a school program. To receive special services, a child must exhibit a need in one of the following areas: developmental delay; mental retardation; visual, orthopedic, health, speech/language or hearing impairments; deafness, deaf-blindness; traumatic brain injury; emotional disturbance; specific learning disability; functional delay; autism; intellectually gifted, or multiple disabilities.

For more information on the registration events, call 547-4000, 547-4020, or your local school. School personnel will also be available during registration to provide assistance.