TELPAS in Kindergarten and First Grade (K–1)

Every emergent bilingual student in Texas, from kindergarten to grade 12, takes part in TELPAS each year until they are reclassified. But what that means is very different at the start of school.

From grade 2, students take two online tests, described in what TELPAS is and how it works. In kindergarten and grade 1, there are no online tests. Instead, TELPAS is a holistic rating: the student's teacher rates their English in each of the four domains, based on what the teacher has observed of the student's English in everyday classroom activities.

For families, the practical upshot is simple. There is no test day to prepare a five- or six-year-old for, no computer session and no headset. Your child's TELPAS result comes from their ordinary school life.

Holistic means the teacher judges the student's English as a whole, across many situations, rather than scoring answers to a fixed set of questions. A teacher who has listened to a child on the carpet, at the reading table, in the lunch line and on the playground has seen far more of their English than a short test could show, and that is the reason Texas rates young children this way.

Teachers who rate students complete TEA's holistic rating training first. The training is how TEA aims to make sure that teachers in different schools apply the ratings in the same way. The ratings are based on TEA's proficiency level descriptors, which describe what students at each level can typically do in each domain. In 2026–27 and 2027–28, while Texas moves to new English Language Proficiency Standards, teachers use transition-year versions of these descriptors and still give one of the same four ratings.

The teacher gives a rating in each domain: listening, speaking, reading and writing. The ratings use the same four levels as the online tests in older grades.

Each domain counts equally in the composite rating. Because K–1 ratings come from teachers rather than an online test, K–1 reports show ratings rather than the 1000–2000 TELPAS scale scores used in grades 2–12.

• Beginning: the student is at an early stage of learning English and relies heavily on support.
• Intermediate: the student understands and uses simple, familiar English and still needs considerable support.
• Advanced: the student can take part in grade-level classroom activities in English with some support.
• Advanced High: the student can take part in grade-level classroom activities in English with minimal support.

The teacher is asking, for each domain, how well this child understands and uses English in the classroom. In practice that might look like this, though each teacher's evidence comes from their own classroom:

Young children's English varies a lot from day to day and situation to situation. A child who is quiet in a large group may chat freely with one friend. The value of a holistic rating is that the teacher can take that into account.

• Listening: following directions, understanding a story read aloud, responding to questions and to classmates.
• Speaking: telling about something that happened, asking for help, joining a conversation, explaining an idea.
• Reading: early reading skills in English, from recognizing letters and words to reading and understanding simple texts.
• Writing: from drawing and labeling to writing words, sentences and short pieces in English.

Writing in kindergarten and grade 1 is rated holistically, like the other three domains. The teacher draws on the student's own classroom writing when deciding the writing rating. Unlike the writing collections used before writing moved online for grades 2–12 in 2023, TEA does not require schools to assemble a formal writing collection for kindergarten and grade 1.

So TELPAS kinder writing samples are exactly that: your child's own classroom writing, which the teacher sees during the year. They are not answers to a test prompt, and there is nothing special your child needs to write at home for them.

If you want to know what kind of writing your child's teacher is collecting, ask. Most teachers are glad to show families how a child's writing has developed over the year.

Holistic ratings are completed within the statewide TELPAS window each spring. In 2026, K–1 ratings were due by March 27. The TELPAS 2027 testing window runs from February 15 to March 26.

Your district will share your child's results. If you want to talk about them, the teacher who completed the rating is usually the best person to ask.

Under the criteria chart updated in February 2025, students could not be reclassified in pre-kindergarten or kindergarten. In July 2026, TEA announced that from the 2026–27 school year, pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students must be offered the chance to show English proficiency each year, with a modified chart and guidance to follow, so ask your school how this applies to your child. From grade 1, reclassification is possible when a student meets all three state criteria: a TELPAS composite rating of Advanced High, a qualifying result on a state-approved reading assessment (for grades 1 and 2, the chart names the Iowa Assessments Form F, Reading and Language, at the 40th percentile or above on each part), and a Subjective Teacher Evaluation. The school's Language Proficiency Assessment Committee makes the decision.

The TELPAS reclassification guide explains these criteria in more detail.

Because there is no test to prepare for, preparation at this age is simply supporting your child's language every day. That is good news: the things that help are things many families do anyway.

Above all, keep using your home language. Children who hear rich language at home, in any language, have more words and ideas to bring to English. Talking, singing, telling stories and reading together in your strongest language is not a distraction from English. It is the foundation for it.

• Talk with your child about their day, in whatever language you share. Ask open questions: what was the best part? What did you make?
• Read together every day, in English or your home language. Talk about the pictures and ask what might happen next.
• Let your child tell you stories, and ask questions that invite more: and then what? Why did she do that?
• Encourage drawing and writing at home: shopping lists, cards, labels on drawings. Spelling does not need to be perfect.
• Ask the teacher what your child is working on in English and how you can support it at home.
• Look for English in everyday places: library story times, shows for young children, playdates with English-speaking friends.

Teachers in kindergarten and grade 1 see your child's English every day, and they are the ones who complete the ratings. A conversation with them is the most useful thing you can do. Questions worth asking include: how does my child use English in class? Which domain is strongest, and which needs the most support? What support does my child receive now?

If you would prefer to talk in your home language, ask the school about an interpreter. That is a normal request.