Objective: There is increasing evidence that children as young as preschool-aged can experience suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs), and these early-onset STBs often continue into adolescence and are linked to other mental health struggles. Although there have been calls for increased suicide screening and assessment for at-risk children, we lack tools for identifying these youngest children who are experiencing STBs and might be at heighted risk for suicide. This is due, in part, to skepticism about children’s ability to report their own STBs and concern over directly questioning them. A parent-report measure would sidestep these concerns and give child providers a much-needed tool for assessing STBs in young children. We thus developed and tested a brief parent-report suicide risk screen. The screen, modeled on self-report screens commonly used with youth, assesses passive and active suicidal ideation and suicide behaviors. Method: A 4-item parent-report suicide risk screen was administered to caregivers of 70 children aged 4-7 years (M=5.6; SD=1.15). Caregivers and children then each independently completed the K-SADS, an age-appropriate clinical interview to assess STBs. Recruitment procedures oversampled children with a history of STBs. Results: Of the 70 suicide-risk screens administered, 14 were positive (i.e., a caregiver endorsed at least one screen item). Of those, 12 caregivers endorsed STBs on the K-SADS interview. Two caregivers endorsed STBs on the K-SADS but not the screen, and 54 caregivers did not endorse STBs on either the screen or K-SADS. Reliability metrics based on caregiver-only reports are sensitivity = 86% and specificity = 96% of the screener to detect STB risk. Psychometrics of the screen to capture caregiver- or child-reported STBs on the K-SADS were sensitivity = 63% and specificity = 98%. For context, the sensitivity of currently available suicide risk screens range from 50-100% and specificity from 60-98%. Conclusion: When compared to a “gold standard” caregiver-report clinical interview, the brief suicide-risk screener for children under age 8 shows favorable psychometric properties. This screen if further validated could provide pediatric clinicians with a new tool to assess suicide risk in young children. In particular, the high specificity of the measure (i.e., few false positives) indicate that positive screens should be taken seriously as indicators of suicide risk, with appropriate follow-up care provided.