DS4 is in preK4 at a parochial school in the northern Chicago suburbs. He misses the state's K cutoff by about a month, meaning that someone who reads at a third-grade level (and got 78/80 on his current school's first-grade end-of-year test) and does two-digit addition/subtraction and one-digit multiplication may have to spend another year in preschool. His current school is very iffy on letting him enter early. The public district and all the other parochial schools I've called in the area have said no way. Does anyone know of any a school in the area that would at least consider letting him start K a year early?

M. Dale

Sorry, I can't help with specific schools, but I found that our parochial pre-k school was the best bet for early entrance. They knew DD and her abilities better than any other school and our public flat out refused early entrance. Did your current school do the testing and what are their concerns about early entrance? What specific testing has your son done so far? Maybe getting a formal IQ and achievement testing done (if you haven't yet) would convince the school to do a trial in K and your son is likely to do just fine.

Jen

Our current school did the reading testing, using their first-grade reading year-end test. (I think it's actually a year-beginning and year-end test, where they judge the progress of the child through the school year.) We talked his PreK teacher and the Special Services staff member for an hour today -- they make the recommendation to the principal -- and they didn't have any stated academic concerns with putting him ahead.

However, they think that socially he's behind the other preK kids and thus should go through preK again to "socially mature." (My wife and I don't necessarily agree with the premise of the last sentence and we definitely don't agree with the solution. Part of the problem with him making friends is that vast intellectual gulf between him and his classmates, and making the gulf bigger...no way.)

The other issue is, as they tell it, the principal will sometimes let kids into K who missed the deadline by a few days or a week or two, but he's a full month past the September 1st kindergarten cutoff. We're talking to the principal directly soon, we hope, and maybe we can get a better answer. But our optimism is shot, and we're seriously trying to find a better option somewhere.

M. Dale