Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Changes to kindergarten age rule proposed

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/...hanges-to-kindergarten-age-rule-proposed
Changes to kindergarten age rule proposed: Burlington mother looks to enroll 4-year-old
by Molly Walsh
Burlington (Vermont) Free Press
June 6, 2010

A Burlington mother is asking the city school
board to allow exceptions to a rule that says
students entering kindergarten must be 5-
years-old on or before Sept. 1 of the year they
start school.

Jen Appleyard believes that the current policy
needlessly prevents children who are socially and
academically ready from entering kindergarten
and could sentence gifted children to boredom
that hobbles their entire school career. She'll
make her case at Tuesday's 7 p.m. board
meeting at Burlington High School.

The current policy is a one-size-fits-all
approach that does not take into account the
significant differences in children's intellectual
and social maturity, she said. Appleyard is not
proposing that Burlington throw out its age cut-
off; only that the school district adopt a set of
criteria that can be used to allow exceptions.

Appleyard's bid to change the policy began after
she attempted to enroll her 4-year-old daughter
Maggie, who will turn 5 on Sept. 23, at
Champlain Elementary School for kindergarten
this fall. School officials told Appleyard that
Maggie would have to wait a year and register
for the fall of 2011 because she does not meet
the district age cut-off.

Many children arrive at kindergarten not
knowing how to read. Maggie started reading
when she was 3 and is now devouring chapter
books such as E.B. White's "Stuart Little," a book
typically recommended for children in grades
three to five.

<rest of article at link>

The article does a good job of discussing the issues. I hope Jen Appleyard is successful in changing the policy. Saying that a child born on September 2 MUST wait a year, regardless of that child's intellectual and academic level, is idiotic.

Good for her for following through with this even though it's unlikely to help her own child. What an advocate! Thanks for sharing the article and please post an update letting us know how things turn out.

Sad thing is her child probably would benefit from skipping kindergarten all together and being placed in 1st grade right now.

I have a friend whose daughter is in the same boat. She is a September baby, too, but misses the cutoff by a few days. The district she lives in will not even consider allowing her DD early enrollment and her DD is definitely ready for Kindergarten next year. All they offer is an evaluation when she's enrolled in kindergarten with a possible jump to 1st grade.

This is one reason I'm glad we're where we are. DD has a Sept 5 birthday and all the northwest states have a Sept 1 cutoff. CA right now is Dec 3 so she is able to go this year (was ready to go last year when gifted big brother went but that's another story, lol).

I agree with a soft cutoff of Sept 1 but they should have a way to 'override' the age cutoff for specific cases. I've heard some states have a month 'leeway' and can allow a child just past the cutoff in if they wish.

One thing that really bugs me about hard cutoff dates is that only one of the barn doors is closed, if you see what I mean.

Specifically, redshirting/keeping a five-year-old out of kindergarten until he turns six is a widely accepted practice. Schools tell us that acceleration is a Bad Thing because kids need to be with age peers; if this is so vitally important, why do they allow redshirting?

In light of this practice, I get extra annoyed when schools they get wound up about, umm, what I'm going to call greenlighting/early entrance to K (or skipping K to go straight to first).

Val

I realize I'm stating the obvious to most here, but just in case some people are going through this right now:

In many places it's very easy to get around this by doing private kindergarten.

My parents did this with me and we did it with one of our kids. In an ideal world there would be a discretionary process but if you aren't up to fighting a battle and you can swing one year of private school financially, it gets the job done.

This is only a super easy fix is your child is fairly close to the cut-off date. Otherwise it may still be iffy to convince a private school to accept a young kindergartener.

In Maryland, they have a testing policy, that if the child is born after Sept 1, but before October 15th (it used to be December 31st), parents can opt to have the kids tested. I don't know what kind of test, nor do I know how they determine if the child is ready for K, BUT I think that every state that has a cutoff should adopt a policy for those with late birthdays. DD4, who will not be attending K until NEXT year turns 5 on October 11th. She would've easily been a Kindergartener this year, and we are not sure of her LOG, if any. Though that still would've left DS6 out until the following year...

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/earlychi/earlyentranceprocedures.shtm

Val, this is one of the biggest issues for me too! DS6 had a friend in pre-K that would've turned 5 during the last week in August, and his mom held him back a year because he was socially immature. Well, DS6 was slightly immature with me too, BUT once he got into K and had his testing, the school was the one telling me how mature he was!! Schools are worried about 10 years down the line, yet if a parent is redshirting a child, he/she will be driving before anyone! So what's the big deal if my child has to wait an additional year? Driving seems to be the big issue when discussing grade skips around here. My response, other than of course telling them we have to worry about now, not then, is he'll be lucky to get his license at 16 regardless of what grade he's in!

In many Massachusetts school districts one must send the child to private school for both kindergarten AND 1st grade -- public school age requirements apply to both.

Public schools can have such silly policies because they are quasi-monopolies that parents must spend tens of thousands of dollars to avoid. I think a voucher system is needed. Schools with bad policies would lose students, and teachers in such schools would lose their jobs.

Edited - yes it can be iffy if you are advocating for a child more than a month or two off the mark. Some of the private K's have their own equally arbitrary age limits! I am dealing with one right now, although they seem to be softening up a bit!!