Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy No early entrance K = Discrimination

So I have just found out that there is a very limited Early Entrance Kindergarten criteria that ends on Sept.14. Anyone born after that has no option for Early Entrance K. That seems like it is discrimination? Anyone tried to fight this in their district? Also, unless your child was schooled outside of the state, they have to be 6 to enter first grade even if they did K in a private school. I am thinking of trying to fight it. Any suggestions resources etc? I have no idea if my little one will be ready at that time but she sure seems like she might be.

Before DD6 started K, she did outside testing and I asked for subject acceleration in math and reading. She's now in 1st and doing subject acceleration with 2nd grade for math and reading. It's been a good short term solution for us since there is an accelerated magnet program that starts in 3rd grade.

Tamara Fisher has some good blogs on this subject:
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/unwrapping_the_gifted/2010/07/abandoning_age-tracking.html

http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/unwrapping_the_gifted/2010/09/what_matters_most.html

It's not discrimination (although it may be suboptimal, or just plain stupid). Does your school district ever skip students? Are you saying that in your district, even if they do sometimes skip, they force everyone to go through the initial grade (K or 1st)?

Though I live in Texas, a state that leaves it up to the districts, I have seen some of the districts take this approach. They will not allow early entrance to Kindergarten and no amount of tests will change their mind. And for the 1st grade requirement: our state is the same way. Only if the child comes from outside the state. BUT I do know that this does not mean that the child will not be able to advance to 1st grade when they enter Kindergarten. One friend of mine plans to send her DD to public school and her DD missed the cut off date by 2 days. She is a smart, mature little girl and was clearly ready for Kindergarten this year but the district will not even consider allowing her. They will, however, test her during the first 2 weeks of school (next year) to determine if she needs to skip to 1st grade.

So even though your state has the same 1st grade rules that ours does they might also allow for acceleration, bypassing Kindergarten.

Hi I called it discrimination because it is basing educational success on a physical characteristic that the child has no choice about. AS far as the skipping I think that depends on the school and other things that I do not know much about. My older daughter has a friend who skipped K. However if my little one skips K then that deprives her of an experience. There seems also a question on if it is better to skip K or 1st. It also puts the burden on me to educate my child in the social arena necessary for first grade. Not that I am not willing to do whatever it takes it just seems points that could be used to change the district policy. I know there was a woman in VT. who was trying to change the policy but I do not know how to contact her. The woman in the office said it had to do with funding from the State.

Here they would not let DS skip INTO Kindergarten, but they let him skip OVER it into first grade, so he had two years of preschool and then first grade.

I wouldn't worry about missing out on the experience of Kindergarten--but then, I myself didn't go to anything before first grade! They didn't have preschool back then, and my mom said I already knew anything that they might teach in Kindergarten, so she didn't send me. I don't think it scarred me for life or anything.

Good luck!

Looking into it more, I found this:
http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-09-30/news/24106416_1_governor-signs-bill-kindergarten-cutoff-date

Seems like a false economy to me. They might save $700M in year one, but it's not like those kids with Sept-Nov birthdates will never go to school. They'll just go next year, and the savings will eventually disappear. And half of those "savings" will go to pre-K programs which we won't be able to fund as a result.

As for the discrimination question, I have a cynical view: our education system (especially the public system) treats education like an industrial commodity. The students are the widgets, and the test scores are QA. If a widget passes, it passes, and no further attention is required. Anything that doesn't fit in the molding machine isn't really wanted.

Val

I don't disagree that it's discriminatory, but discrimination is perfectly legal, so long as it's not based on status as member of a protected class. And the class of "advanced 4yos" is not protected.

FWIW, minimum age at entry to both K and 1st is set by law in our state (at 5yo and 6yo by 9/1, respectively). So no early entry to K, or skips to 1st, but you can skip to 2nd at any age, assuming sufficient academic ability.

Your DD is 2, or close to it, right? So she would have made the 12/2 cutoff, but won't make the 9/1 cutoff in 2012? Given that your older DD is highly accelerated, I'd suspect that K is likely to be as bad a fit for the younger at 4 as at 5. Would working with her at home for that year, and enrolling her as a 1st or 2nd grader be a possibility to consider?

I disagree that it is discriminatory. The problem here, as I understand it, is that the OP would like her advanced child to be treated differently, not that her child is being treated differently.