Kindergarten Cut-Off Dates

[cortsmommy]

Is anyone else having an issue with their child just missing the kindergarten cut off dates?

And to the experienced moms...do you find that most public schools very strictly adhere to such policies or can they be stretched for advanced children?

[bdavis337]

My school district will not make exception to the cutoff date, period. As the parent of a k'er who was born in march, this was not an issue for us. However, unless the child is exceedingly academically advanced and socially so as well, it's probalby not a big deal to miss cutoff.

[ChristaN]

Most schools will not make an exception b/c many states will not provide funding for a K child who is not 5 by a certain date. My girls just made the cut off (by 2 weeks with dd#1 and 3 days with dd#2 -- due to the cut off being changed the year she started; she wouldn't have made it the prior year).

The only way around it that I have found in the state I live would be to go to private school for both K and 1st and then transfer in to public in 2nd. They don't tend to take a child who attended private K only and will make him/her repeat K.

[MamaE]

This is the policy in our state (IL):

Children who are five years of age by
and including September 1 will be
admitted to kindergarten. Four-yearold
children whose birthdays fall
between September 2 and December 1
who meet established district criteria
may also be admitted to kindergarten
through the early admission
procedure. Evaluations must be
completed and submitted to the
Curriculum Office by the last day of
April of the preceding school year.


This isn't an issue for us as I've got April babies. I just ran across your post and happened to know the answer in our state. It might be worth checking to see if your school has early admission. Good luck!

[CarrieMF]

Here you can have the kid tested to see if they are ready for K. The only other reason(other than those listed by pp) why the cut off would be lifted for a child would be if they have behaviour issues and putting them into K is to help them get services. Those ones usually know they will be repeating K prior to going in early.

[mamaley]

She misses the cutoff by a month and a week. She could have gone to pre-k this Fall. I'm not too upset about it, but I can't believe she won't be in K until 2009.

[IansMommy]

Where I live, the cutoff date is October 1st. My dd's birthday is October 29th. I don't personally have an issue with the cutoff, even though dd's birthday is close and she will start k when she is almost 6. She is smart (academically), has great fine motor skills, but is still socially a 4 year old --and that is why I am truly glad that she will wait a year.
In our district, children who have birthdays from about June to the cutoff date are screened before kindergarten. Many of them go to junior kindergarten, which is a transitional k program for children on the young side of 5. It has worked wonderfully in our district.
I used to teach kindergarten and first grade, and I really noticed a difference in waiting a year. The social/emotional and fine/gross motor stuff doesn't seem major in the beginning, but by first grade it was. Most children recommended to wait a year (who waited) really excelled. Those who did not (but were recommended) usually had some issues that were mis-labeled as learning disabilities--things that were really developmentally normal (for their younger age).
Anyway...I digress.
I really support a cutoff. There has to be one somewhere, and it really does need to be adhered to in the public school *as it currently runs*--I stress this because the public school is (unfortunately) not designed to function with multi-age classrooms. As a former k teacher, there is a vast difference between a child who is 5 years on the dot, and one who is 5 years and 6 months. With one teacher, 20 kids, no aide, and a non-individual curriculum (again, unfortunate), it is truly in the best interest of the child to wait a year to start.
Hey, consider this...a child who waits a year can always benefit from: an extra year at home with mom (doing challenging thing that make sense in their own world), attending preschool, and just being a kid for an extra year.

Sorry...I really rambled.

[~ATenthMuse~]

Originally Posted by IansMommy

Hey, consider this...a child who waits a year can always benefit from: an extra year at home with mom (doing challenging thing that make sense in their own world), attending preschool, and just being a kid for an extra year.

Dd's birthday is the 25th of August and the cut off here is the 31st. She's really close. We're homeschooling preschool now and plan to do the same for K, even though dd is academically ready, if we were planning to send her to school for K, it wouldn't be this year... An extra year at home can be a great thing!

[cmoma]

My son who is almost 3.5 ( yes I am already in debate about his schooling )
will miss the cut off here by a month and a half or so, but the school district does not allow any early entry to K. He is quite advanced for his age acad, and socially and I was upset that I could not get him into it early though the thought of him going to K next fall (08) is a little scary it is now out of the question so... They do offer a gifted program that I am going to look into to see if that would suit him. I want his first real school experience to be a good one. He is in ps right now but it is more of a social than acad.

I think that there should be a little leway in regards to the cutoff, if there are children who are ahead of their peers, but if there is a seperate program that will allow the child to go at a more advanced level then I think having them go at the correct age shouldn't be a problem.

[EFPookie]

Texas: My daughter was born September 2nd and they would not let her go to PreK in our district until she was 4 on September 1st nor would they have let her go to straight to K until she was 5 on September 1st. I believe there is a website out there that gave me the hope that we could appeal this, but our district had no such process. We went to the Superintendent directly.

It was hard in some aspects, but she is a little bitty thing and fits in just fine with her younger classmates now and since she is more mature, she is a big help to her teacher (she's finishing up K this year). It also puts her and her younger sister in the same school every other year instead of not being in the same school until middle school and high school because they are PreK and K this year (our schools are divided 2 grades to a school from K to 5th).

[quaz]

dd has a sept bday, and misses the cut-off

I could have gotten her in, b/c of how our school district works it

she is ahead academically...can color, cut, skip, count, can sound out basic words...

I chose to wait, though, b/c emotionally, she can just fall apart AND she has no interest in academics...with the push of homework and academics, I think it's highly important for her growth to avoid that for now


Tammy

[cortsmommy]

Well ideally I would keep him home with me but I am a single mom who just needs 15 more hours at the university to get my degree and then do my internship to be a teacher. I'm having a hard time paying $600 a month for his private school (he's been in waldorf kindergarten for two years now), plus pay my bills, plus work full time, plus be a mom, plus go to school full time. Its rather impossible really, something always has to give and its always my school and my bills. lol. He's so incredible and special and eager to learn though I don't want to just leave him with babysitters. It would be such a load off my shoulders if he could be in a good program that I didn't have to pay so much for. We live in an awesome area with a great city school system and I pay $1000 a year in taxes and wish he could go to school here. lol. Okay my whiny rant is over now. I guess we just don't always get what would be best for us or what we want.

[Belleweather]

We have a November birthday, and I'm already stressing about this.

I was a december birthday and was forced to wait an 'extra' year rather than start kindergarten when I was four, even though I was academically and socially ready. I think being held back was a start of a LOT of academic and social problems for me as a student, because it's not like kids who ARE ready academically don't continue to progress while they're sitting around waiting for kindergarden to start. When I finally did start school I was reading way above grade level and needed special services so I wasn't bored, which made fitting in socially hard.

I have no idea if that will be the case with my son, or if he really won't be ready until he's nearly six. But it freaks me out and pisses me off that the decision is likely to be made just on his birthday and we're not going to be able to appeal it either way. *sigh* Just another thing pushing us away from public education.

[TiredX2]

Just ask your district.

Our district's policy is August 31st cut-off but anyone from the next year can test in. The test is actually quite simple, IMO.

DS actually has an August 31 birthday and we sent him "on time" with no problems. I can't imagine him having waited another year--- that would have been a disaster!

[34me]

Originally Posted by ChristaN

Most schools will not make an exception b/c many states will not provide funding for a K child who is not 5 by a certain date. My girls just made the cut off (by 2 weeks with dd#1 and 3 days with dd#2 -- due to the cut off being changed the year she started; she wouldn't have made it the prior year).

The only way around it that I have found in the state I live would be to go to private school for both K and 1st and then transfer in to public in 2nd. They don't tend to take a child who attended private K only and will make him/her repeat K.

What she said! DS missed the cutoff by 2 days and we have been paying for it ever sice. So much so that I will probably be jumping forums for him next year.

[mpeel]

Originally Posted by mum2a&a

An extra year at home can be a great thing!

I agree. An extra year older before college can be a great thing.

[aniT]

Originally Posted by mpeel

I agree. An extra year older before college can be a great thing.

Or the kid can hate that extra year.. spend their entire school experience bored out of their minds...and barely graduate from high school. All because they were held back by a mere 19 days. And the torture from the boys to the poor girl who wear a 36 C in the 6th grade because she missed a cut off date by a few measly days.

When we lived in Cali my November baby was able to start school. Now that we are in Oregon I have another November baby and the cut off is Sept.1st. Way too early in my opinion. My poor Jan baby wouldn't have made it in any state.. and the sad thing is.. she is really tall for her age and towers over 4 year olds....I will probably end up home schooling her anyway... at least for the first couple of years.

[RomanGoddess]

She is smart (academically), has great fine motor skills, but is still socially a 4 year old --and that is why I am truly glad that she will wait a year.

But then she will be completely unstimulated for another year, rather than learning what she clearly desires to learn and is ready to learn. Isn't that also a bad thing? I just don't get the "well, socially she is behind therefore I should hold her back" line of reasoning. You could just as easily say "well, academically, she is ahead so I better push her forward." Both are important. A child should not be forced to suppress her desire to learn because an adult does not believe that she can cope at a social level any more than a child should be thrown into a social situation that she is not ready to handle.

Another point: what if the child being behind "socially" is really just the child's temperament? My nephew was held back for a year because he was "behind socially" and it turned out that socially, he was the same way throughout his school life - shy, passive, not so keen to interact, not responsive in groups, and a follower when he did interact. Academically, he was brilliant.

[bobandjess99]

I believe we have the earliest cutoffs in the nation here, it is June 1st. however, if the birthday is between june2nd and Sept 1st, you can apply for admittance. (and EVERYONE does) Dd was born Sept 15...so by 2 weeks, she misses it. Officially, you can NOT test in after Sept 1st....but my sister in law got her kid in with a November birthday by being VERY tenacious. (and said "youngster" is breing promoted to the local "gifted" elementary school next year!!)

[~ATenthMuse~]

Originally Posted by mpeel

I agree. An extra year older before college can be a great thing.

Or ten! I'm 30... one year left on my BA. I think I appreciate it a lot more at this age than I would have if I'd went at 18... but that's another thread.

OT, I was declared academically "gifted." Reading at 4, what have you. Still, I have a November birthday. I ended up staying home for my "kindergarten" year and then placed into 1st grade anyway.

OP, having been a single mom, I can relate. Do what you gotta do. I have options now, that I didn't with ds. If I had to go back to work tomorrow, I'd send dd to school before daycare. That you have great public schools, works out all the better. My ds goes to public school here and he loves it. He's doing better than ever, academically and socially.

Good luck to you.