Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Birthday Rule

I'm not sure what the rules are in each state, but in most southern states, if a child is not 5 by September 1st, they have to wait until the following year to enter kindergarten.

DS5 wasn't 5 until this past December, so he's in pre-K now, instead of kindergarten (if we were in NJ back when I was younger, he would've been in K this year... though I know NJ's rules have changed too).

DD3 won't be 4 until October (yeah we "planned" well), so she won't be going to pre-K until next year... as a side note, my neighbor's son yesterday showed me a cow and had to ask his mom what sound it made after I asked him. DD3 is our "normal" child and wouldn't have hesitated, even a year ago. And of course this child will be going to pre-K this fall.

Anywho, has anyone hear challenged their state's birthday rule? What process did you go through, and what were the results? Even though it's too late for DS5 and probably too late for DD3, I think I might make that a "pet project" of mine (I've always enjoyed a challenge).

DS5 has a boy in his pre-K class that turned 4 on August 31st. He will still be 4 when he enters kindergarten in the fall (we start in August here). Which means DS5 is 9 months older than he is. So there will ALWAYS be a child who is the youngest in the class, by a year (if DS5's bday was on Sept 2nd, he would be 363 days older than this child). The make the rule to "help" kids with December birthdays, but in reality, it's still hurting someone. I have ideas in my head and on paper as what to propose, but I haven't made my first "move" yet... other than the things I did to attempt to get DS5's elementary school to just "look at him" for this school year.

Anyway, sorry that's so long and drawn out and all over the place. What say you?

I have friends who have done it. Their district required testing and such to make sure the child was ready. In our district, the cutoff is Dec 1st.

See if it was Dec 1st here, I probably could've challenged it better. I was told, "if his birthday was in September", even though the cutoff here is Sept 1.

Our district won't accept private testing. But I'm thinking that I should've done it anyway and then pushed harder. I don't want DS5 to be skipping too many grades, but I know he wouldn't have suffered being in K this year.

I have researched the "testing" that each K student has to pass to enter 1st, and DS5 has been at meets or exceeds each thing except one area for over a year now. Drives me mad!

I think it stinks that every parent has a right to hold his/her child back, but I don't have the right to get my two tested to see if they can go forward until they are actually in school... and even then it has to be teacher recommended. grrr.

The State of Ohio mandates school districts have an early entrance policy on file. I don't know the rules in other states. Schools here don't openly tell parents and even push back - but the rules are in place to get over the birthdate. Our kids are 4 and 5 months "past" the birthdate cut. And it isn't too late for the other child to skip over and enter another grade for next year. If your achievement tests keep you in the 99 percentiles in the grade you want to be in... I'd like to think a school would be open to talking.

Around here they are harder on moving boys than girls up... and I CANNOT stand the arguement we got from one person that because so many people now retain or red shirt their kid to "give them an edge" and send them late that going early would be too hard since some of the kids would be two years older than our dds - as if this is my problem.

Interesting. I will have to dig deeper to see if we have a similar policy. And funny, but not funny, a girl in DS5's class got to go into K this year, and she also has a December birthday, but we all assumed it was due to her father working for the school itself.

In NM, the cut off is September 1st as well. I petitioned for early entrance and was denied. They just don't do it here. So we homeschooled for the year and I loved it!

Now he's nominally in K, being skipped to 4th next year so it all works out in the wash.

Thanks... now I wish I would've pushed further... but maybe I can push for 1st since I KNOW that is where he belongs, not in K in the fall...

oh my oh my!!! i found something. thank you so much!!! i even found the early entrance to 1st grade procedures/forms/etc!!!

you have NO idea how much this eases my mind!!!

i'm kickin' myself for not knowing this before, but at least it's an avenue even if it doesn't work out for us!

again, thank you thank you thank you!!!


grrr.. scratch that. it said from my state on the url i found, but it's for maryland... but at least i have that as a start for my "project"...

I live in Texas and here the cutoff date is in September but the state allows for the individual districts input. My district will allow for them to test for early admission but the bar is high: to get into kindergarten they have to pass a test at the 3rd grade level. This seems crazy to me. If the child is that advanced why would you put them in Kindergarten? It is their way of stopping early admission.

My problem is my DD's birthday is in August so i doubt they would even let her take the test being that she would be almost a year younger. At the rate she is going I predict that by the time she is 4 she will be able to pass a 3rd grade test. She is already at 1st grade level and some 2nd grade and she is 2 1/2 now.

Colorado allows for early entrance (I don't live there, but when it came out in the news I was proud of them). In my state, if you complete accredited kindergarten (private), you're eligible for 1st in public regardless of cutoff date. One of my kids skipped Kindergarten with test scores, but all of mine make the cut off by at least 5 days.