Getting Child into Kindergarten

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Sistertiiye asks:

Does anyone know if there is anything that can be done to get a 4 year old into Kindergarten, who misses the California cut-off date by 2 days (Dec 2 vs Dec 4), short of paying for private school? Help please! He is highly intelligent and clever and already reading books. He can read, recite and write his ABC's and knows numbers to 20. Also knows numbers to 10 in Spanish as well as many other Spanish words and phrases. He is currently enrolled in a Pre-K class, but his teacher (who has been teaching for 26 years and used to be a Kindergarten teacher) has explained that he is more than ready. I can't get anyone at the district office to even discuss this or offer any options other than making him wait a full year before beginning Kindergarten. He already knows a majority of the things that Kindergartners know. Waiting an additional year to begin will put him in a class with kids younger than him and where he already knows the material. This will be detrimental to him. Thanks for any help or suggestions.

In Topics: Kindergarten readiness

> 60 days ago

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Expert

lkauffman

May 29, 2009

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What the Expert Says:

This must be so frustrating for you! As I understand it, school districts are very reluctant to admit students beyond the birthday cut-off date because it quickly becomes a slippery slope. If the school admits your son, but does not admit a child who has a birthday on December 5th (other child may be ready), they must contend with the protests from the other parent. Thus, they typically stick with the hard and fast cut-off date to limit the gray area.

Of course, that rationale does not improve your situation any or make this any easier. Assuming that your son is developmentally ready in other areas of growth (see here for a sample readiness quiz: http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_Readiness_Indicators/), you may consider requesting that your son be registered for kindergarten once he turns five. The California Department of Education website reveals that some districts (in rare instances) will admit a student once they turn five. Thus, he would miss the first few months of school, but he could remain in preschool for that period and hit the ground running on December 4th. For more on this, please see: http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/gs/em/kinderinfo.asp.

To help make your case, you might consider taking a letter of recommendation from his preschool teacher, a completed kindergarten readiness quiz, and submit that your son be evaluated for readiness. Perhaps, this will soften their stance and provide the space you need for them to consider him for kindergarten (at least on his birth date).

Good luck!

L. Compian, Ph.D.
Counseling Psychologist
Education.com

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