Are children sent to kindergarten at 5 or older in your community?

[OceanAnnie]

Same here - private, but most kids attend 2 years of preschool. I can't imagine sending a child to kindy without knowing this basic information.

The programs around here start with MMO and progress to preschool. The kids are in "preschool" from 3ish to 5 and beyond. It's grouped 3-4s, and 4-5s, and I guess 5-6s. Haven't investigated the last group.

 

[JVL1018]

Cut off date in my town is Oct 1st.
My daughter with an Oct birthday just missed it, so she's one of the oldest in her class. My son with a September birthday made it, but he wasn't ready, everyone who met him-his own teachers and friends who are teachers told me to hold him back. Nice! LOLThey were 100% spot on though.

So he's held back, but he's less than 2 month younger than his sister was in K, so it seems normal to us to start K at almost 6 now.
I have met only a few kids who were held back, all were boys and not one was held back for sports or size-I don't get that-how do you even know if your son will want to play sports anyway?

As for being 19 when you graduate HS, my husband was, and he started school on time, with a June birthday, would have just turned 18 before high school graduation, but got left back in 1st grade so he graduated high school at 19.
Didn't seem to hurt him much, successful, college educated, good career-now anyone who gets left back and has a birthday from Oct-June will be 19 when they graduate high school. It is what it is.

Both my kids will be 18 when they graduate high school, I was 17, but half of my graduating class was 18(all the kids born after January 1st-we had a 12/31 cutoff back then), with a couple of kids who had been left back being 19, I don't find it unusual at all.

 

[Mady/Sophiemom]

Our cutoff in Ohio was Sept 15th I think.

My oldest DD was 5 in late June, but not emotionally ready, so we waited, and she was 6 when she started. She is now in 6th grade, and most days will tell you she hates me for making her wait. I still stand our decision, as she is just not very mature most days. She has kids in her class that make fun of her saying she must have failed a grade. It's hard for her to understand. Luckily she still be 18 when she graduates though.

My younger turned 5 in late Oct. so she was 5 years 10 months. I could have pushed the issue with her, and got her in at 4. She could have handled it I'm sure.

Both my girls are the oldest in their class. I just keep reminding them that they will be the first to get their licenses. That usually helps.

 

[Daxx]

My private, parochial school's cut off is 5 yrs. by Dec. 1st. However, some parents w/Oct., Nov. and Dec. bdays will often hold them a year b/c they're so young. I teach in Buffalo, NY.

 

[aprilgail2]

She has kids in her class that make fun of her saying she must have failed a grade. It's hard for her to understand.

I think it is better to be held back than left back- my friend was left back in kindergarten and we are all in our mid 40's and we STILL tease her about failing kindergarten!

 

[PADISFAM]

there are about 10 different school districts in my community (Erie, PA)- our school district is 5 by May 31st (for the children starting that yr, all the children must be at least 5--some parents still wait until the following yr (there-by their child is 6).

 

[Pigeon]

It's five by December in my district. Lots of people hold their kids back, but I wouldn't do that unless my kid had serious issues. My younger dd was actually a few months shy of five when she started, and she did just fine.

Our kids didn't go to preschool at all, but we taught them to read before they went to K, and they knew numbers up to 20.

 

[Anne34]

In Texas you have to turn 5 before September 1st to start kindergarten.

Illinois is the same. My daughter's birthday is Sept. 5th and had to wait a year. Now she is in all the advanced classes, so it is not necessarily a bad thing to wait.

 

[Alice28]

In Oregon, one has to be 5 by Sept 1st of current school year to start kindy.

 

[barkley]

i had to look this up since my kids go to private and we're new to the state-so for washington it's '5 years of age by midnight on august 31st' (yes, they actualy have a time in the state educational code ). in california it was 5 on or before december 2nd.

honestly, it was very much the common practice for people to hold their kids back such that you saw very few 4 or young 5's in kindergarten in california. i don't know why for the public schools except that allot of people already had their kids in preschools that offered full day programs with identical or more excellerated curriculums than the public school half day k classes so i know some parents did'nt feel like it was beneficial to have their kids go from full day to half day and then the following year back to full day. in the private schools it was definatly the norm for most k's to be at least 6 or an older 5. reason being was the curriculum was much more in alignment with the public school 1st and 2nd grades. so unless you had a younger child that was already reading chapter books, capable of doing addition and subtraction (such that they could begin to learn multiplication mid year) and had very strong writing skills you were'nt going to find a private school where that child could pass the admissions test (oh, and figure they needed the stamina to do a full day of class in addition to an hour per night of mandatory homework-and we're not talking coloring or fill in the blanks ).

now the little private school my kids go to does not even offer kindergarten, which i initialy thought was kind of odd-but then i got to thinking about the last school they went to and how each year it was always a guess as to how many if any kindergarteners they might get. there were a couple of years where that school just went ahead and decided based on the ages of the siblings of existing students and new parent inquiries in the spring to just not offer it in the fall-it was'nt worth it to have a teacher set up for a k class and have less than half a dozen students.

those of you that have the earlier in the year age cut-off's, out of curiosity-do your states allow for a waiver of the age requirement if the child has attended k in another place? reason i ask is there was a younger sibling of one of my kid's former classmates in california whose family was moving out of state one summer. then the parents learned that while the child just barely made the california cut-off (i think her birthday was december 1st), the state they were moving to had a cut-off before the end of the prior school year (i want to say it was something like 5 by june 1st to enroll for that september, so you had to be at bare minimum 5 years and 3 months old) BUT that could be waived if the child had been in a k program for at least 30 days pursuant to the age criteria of another state. SO these parents arranged for the entire family except mom and the dd to move, with mom and dd staying in california for the first 30 days of kindergarten. not my kid, not my decision but i personaly thought it was realy questionable to take a little
4 3/4 year old with absolutly no preschool or what i'de consider heavy kindergarten ready skills and plan on using a rule to put her into a classroom where at bare minimum she would be the youngest by at least 6 months.

 

[torinsmom]

In NC, the current cut-off date is mid-October, but it is changing to August either 08-09 or 09-10. I have one kindergartener who was 6 in November and one who turned five the day before the cut-off. That one is repeating kindergarten, but only because all parties involved agree that he is behind socially, developmentally, academically and physically. I also have pre-K's in the room and have one who turned five a few days after the cut-off. He is working well above kindergarten level, so kindergarten ought to be interesting for him. I think it's silly to have a cut-off date. I know it's a time-saving measure, but it would be better to assess individual kids to see if they are ready for K, IMHO.

Marsha