Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School Registered for first grade! Sort of.

So... I had called the school a couple times in the last couple months to explain dd5's situation as far as being in K early and wanting to transfer her into first grade in the fall.
The same person spoke to me each time, giving a couple different answers, but basically stating that "it is the principal's" decision as to her placement (since she is so young compared with other first graders).
This worried me, so I called back to the main county office to find out their 'age restrictions' on transferring students, and after grade K, they do not have any age restrictions on the grades. I think that pretty well gets around any authority the principal might try to use to stop this....but still not entirely sure.
Now, instead of just having her registered for first, I was told 'we'll be getting back to you on placement'. I just said, 'ok', and left. I really hope/think they don't have a leg to stand on. They did give her the K assessment, and dd described it a bit, sounded very simple. They showed her some letters and numbers and shapes. She said she knew it all (as I know she does, but sometimes these things can be high pressure for some kids). I was kind of amused when we got in there, and she was impatient, and finally she said, 'I want to get to the questions!!' (uh oh)

Anyone else dealing/dealt with similar roadblocks on a transfer to public school?
I knew it would be a bit sticky, so I'm not too alarmed yet...this whole 2 year saga is just getting a bit old!!

Good luck and good for you for calling the main county office. Perhaps getting it in writing from them, and then adding your own written request is a good way to go?

Somehow you DD's behavior at Kindy screening reminds me of a DS14 story.

We did the Kindy eval, and it was a large year, so they were looking hard for kids to encourage to take another year in preschool, but I was working full time and really looking to reduce that weekly preschool check. (That is where my head was at at the time.)

After the whole dance, we stopped in to visit with a family friend who worked in the school, and DS explored her room in detail. FF observed: Well, he sure looks ready for kindergarden!
I shot back: I think he's ready to teach kindergarden.
Everyone laughed.

I can't remember what it was that DS was doing that prompted me to make that offhand comment, but all the adults did laugh, so it must have been something. At the time I was sure DS wasn't anything more than bright because he wasn't reading yet. And reading is what gifted kids in my bio family did. Ha Ha on me! Little did I know what was in store...

Love and More Love,
Grinity

I don't have experience with switching from private to public, so I won't have advice specific to that. However, can you set up a meeting with the principal instead of getting the runaround from the same person who's been telling you it's the principal's decision?

Good luck. I can relate to the advocacy process taking forever, and taking a lot out of you... We finally got a break a few months ago with DS7's transfer to a school for HG kids that is working out great, but the constant advocacy period began when he was 4. I'm happy there's a break for us now, and hopeful it will continue, but I am prepared for more work in the future just in case.

We had some luck when we got the info regarding rules from the district directly and left a message for the principal about what we had been told by the district. In our instance, the local districts had K cut offs of 5 by sometime in June (one district) and 5 by 9/15 (the other two districts). One of the 9/15 districts changed the cut off to 10/1 the year dd10 was going to be 5 in the last couple days of Sept.

The principal of our neighborhood school wouldn't admit that the cut-off had been changed and wouldn't give me any certain answer on enrolling dd. We kept being told that they were looking into in but as far as they knew the cut off was still 9/15. I called the district and left a msg for the principal as to who I had spoken with at the district and what they said and that I'd be there for K registration b/c dd was age eligible. The principal suddenly got notification from the district that the cut off had changed after that and I had no problems with getting dd enrolled.

for what its worth.. this is our school districts new (as of this year) policy. Fall10 was the first time the district used primary MAP

School District XX follows Illinois School Code which specifies that to enter kindergarten, children must be five years of age by September 1 of their kindergarten year and six years of age by September 1 of their first-grade year.

Early Entrance to First Grade may be considered for a child who meets the following criteria:

1. The child will turn 6 years of age between September 2 and December 31 of his first-grade year.
2. The child attended a non-public preschool and will complete kindergarten at that same facility.
3. The child was taught by an appropriately certified kindergarten teacher.
4. The child is a resident of District XX.

If all of the requirements above are met, the parent may request an assessment to determine if the child is eligible for Early Entrance to First Grade. To request this assessment the following is required:

* Parents must register their child at their base elementary school between February 24 and July 28, 2011. No early entrance registrations will be accepted after July 28, 2011.
o An original birth certificate (with the seal issued by the clerk in the county where the child was born) must be presented at registration. Hospital certificates are not acceptable. Please see the District 54 registration website for more detailed information regarding other required registration documents. http://sd54.org/registration
o The parent must submit the current kindergarten progress reports from the school.
* The child will be assessed in reading and math using the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) assessment.
* The child must score a minimum of 90% in both reading and math to qualify for Early Entrance to First Grade. The child�s current kindergarten progress report must indicate excellent academic and social/emotional skills. If the child does not meet the minimum MAP criteria of 90% in both reading and math, the child is not eligible to enter first grade.
* Decisions regarding eligibility for Early Entrance to First Grade will be made by a team consisting of a school psychologist, the school principal and a district administrator. This decision is final.
* If a child is accepted for early entrance before finishing kindergarten, parents must submit proof by June 15, 2011 that the child completed kindergarten.

The decision for a child to enter school early can have a profound effect on the child�s academic and social performance for the remainder of his school career. It is a decision that needs to be taken seriously. Early school experiences shape self-confidence and influence children for the rest of their lives. Children who enter first grade early may demonstrate social or emotional difficulties due to their relative immaturity, have difficulty fitting in with their peers in social situations as they progress through school, and be less likely to excel in sports because of their age and/or smaller size. We ask parents to carefully consider whether enrolling a child early in first grade will be of long-term benefit for their child.

Yes, but the profound effect can be positive as well and I wish that your district would acknowledge that. For those of us with kids whose bds are right on the cusp, we're in a tough spot. Both of my girls could easily have waited to start b/c they squeaked in by mere days and w/ dd10 she moved to the district with the later cut-off after K so she'd be an early admit there if they allowed such a thing, which they do not. They're both much younger than their age peers as a result, but I don't believe that having them be the oldest would have been a good thing either.

My kids are not socially immature as a result of being younger. If anything, they are, and have always been, more socially mature than their age peers which, at times, made making friends harder in the younger years b/c the social interests didn't mesh. I imagine that might have been worse had they been the oldest rather than the youngest in grade.

Smaller size is only an issue up to a point. At some point, they all reach their size potential (middle school or high school). Dd12 was one of the smaller kids in 6th b/c she skipped the prior year and being that much younger made her smaller. She is now of perfectly average size for an 8th grade girl b/c she hit her big growth spurt. You'd never know that she was younger just looking at her. Dd10 is a very small person. She has 1st and 2nd graders who are taller than her. My dh is a little Italian guy and we don't have many tall genes in the family on my side either. Dd12 got the few "average" sized genetics that dh and I had to contribute. Dd10 would be the shortest in grade no matter how long we had waited to start the kid. I can't imagine using my child's height as a determinate of her grade placement. Come high school, when the girls are done growing, she'd be the shortest again even if she was a 20 year old high school student.

Funny ou mention size. My husband in 5'7 and I am 5'3. When he graduated college , he looked like a 12 yr old. He didn't fill and growout for another year. He has an October birthday so he was one of the oldest in his class. My ds5 is 46 inches and a whopping 35lb (wears a 24month size in shorts and they are big in the waist lol). I have no doubt no matter if he was in kinder or first grade in the fall... he would be the smallest. As for maturity, he relates better to older kids. With kids his age he is quite immature. My argument for that will be along the lines of, you teach him and educate him. I will work on maturity as we have.

This size issue sounds familiar. My DH (6'1'', Sept. b-day) said he didn't grow until after high school, so it wouldn't have mattered if he started a year later.

My DS7 was short even before his grade skip. When he went to visit the HG school he attends now, the GC told the class he was a student thinking about coming to join their class. One kid said, "He's in 2nd? He looks like a first-grader!" The GC matter of factly told them that DS skipped first. There were impressed "ooh's". The day he started, there were a couple kids who were interested in his age - the girl who was the tallest in the class, and the kid who used to be the youngest. That was the last we heard of any age talk, but DS says he's glad that his birthday happened before he switched schools, because he's a little embarrassed to be younger and wouldn't be able to avoid talking about it on his birthday.

I intend to stand firm, if push comes to shove, but I reeeeeally want to avoid being the first 'pusher'...
Hopefully if they realize she should be in first and it's 'their idea', I won't have too much to do on it (very wishful thinking). But I did hand in her wppsi scores at registration.

I am trying to think of it in terms like you say... a transfer from another state, or abroad, etc., would they really make that child repeat k, or 3rd grade, or whatever grade they just finished? Hope not.

frannieandjsmom -- WOW that was a scary read. Soooo flexible. Sheesh. Did you try to get your child early entrance? I would be really freaked out and just give up after reading that!