| Early detection for children with special needs at early childhood education (PAUD) and elementary school (SD/MI) are very important. Early detection and proper handling causing children develop more optimally. Cooperation and good communication between parents and teachers are very important due to achieve the expected goals. There are still many parents who are late in realize the problem of child growth and development for various reasons, so that the handling of children becomes late. This study aims to find out how detection of children problems at school is carried out, how the communication between parents and teachers, and how teacher understanding is related to children with special need. This is a quantitative research. Questionnaires were distributed to 210 inclusive and SD/MI teachers and 35 parents of children with special needs. Focus group discussions were conducted with teachers and principals in 12 /SD/MI in Jakarta, Depok and Tangerang. The results showed that 84% of teachers did not conduct a comprehensive assessment related to ABK acceptance, 85% did not have special meetings with parents of children with special needs, 84% stated that there were many obstacles in making early detection, and 79% stated they did not have knowledge and skills regarding children with special needs. Of the 12 PAUD/SD/MI, only 4 PAUD/SD/MI make accurate detection from the experts, while the others are not. As an implication, it is necessary to develop an early detection model for children with special needs in school, build healthy communication with parents, and create an individual curriculum program for children with special needs in order to develop children’s potential more optimally. |