can you go to 1st grade w/o doing kindy

[mommyshanti]

I am in Va. From the info I have gathered it sounds like you have to send a letter of intent and by Aug. and I have missed that deadline. my son is in kindy now he is very smart and ready turning 5 tomorrow so I don't want him to skip kindy now and do next year. I have been disliking the school system for awhile and was wondering if I take him out and it's not official he's homeschooled(not by their records) could he start 1st grade next year on age alone???
Any links or info appreciated
thanks

[YummyYarnAddict]

Kindergarten is mandatory in VA (which surprises me as I've never lived in a state where it was and I actually skipped K and 1):

http://mb2.ecs.org/reports/Report.aspx?id=32

This website has some information about submitting your Notice of Intent for homeschooling:

http://www.vahomeschoolers.org/noi/noing.asp

"Despite what my local superintendent says, the state law says "by August 15." However, many homeschoolers like to send them in early to get them out of the way. What about if you decide mid-year to homeschool? That is no longer a problem. VaHomeschoolers worked successfully to change the state law to clarify that if you begin homeschooling mid year, you simply submit your NOI as soon as practicable and comply with the other homeschool requirements within a month."

[*Erin*]

here in sc kindy is optional. you don't have to do anything, unless your kid went to school in preschool and then you just sign an opt-out form.
i didnt go to kindy myself, and went to 1st grade in a private school...
dd didnt do kindy-she'd not ever been to any formal school, so we just didnt do anything, and then filed paperwork with an accountability group to do 1st grade hs the following yr.

[pigpokey]

I would make sure there wasn't a mandatory minimum age for 1st grade in Virginia. For some reason we have one here. My DD missed the cutoff by a tad for public school K, but I home schooled her for K and am now home schooling her for 1st. But because they have to be 6 on Sept 1 for 1st grade (which is a direct entry year ... we have no K required), she couldn't enroll in 1st grade in a public school. I think entry into 2nd grade would be more possible next year, as there's no set age to be in 2nd grade.

If you are committed to putting him in full day school next year, I would file your NOI and go meet with your school's principal to discuss your intention. If there's any evidence of balkiness, you could always pull the NOI and put him in an accredited private virtual school so he'd be, on paper, going from a private full time accredited K to public 1st.