DD misses cut-off date for Pre-K/K by 5 days...

cecee36

...and we're considering speaking with her teacher at the first parent/teacher conference about getting her bumped up to Pre-K at the beginning of January.  DD hits all of the milestones that are required for her to be in Pre-K and we're noticing that she's "regressing" to behaviors that are common to alot of the younger children in her class.  I'm wondering if anyone else has had success in getting their children bumped up and if so, what steps you had to take to get them promoted?  Any information you can share would be appreciated.  Thanks!

penguingrrl

I would not. I plan to follow the school cutoff in all respect and neither push ahead nor hold back. If it's the school she'll be staying in long-term or they're following the cutoff date for that school I see no reason to push ahead. I would figure she'd be a touch older and more mature when it's time to start high school and, even more importantly IMO, move off to college.

VTbride05

I would go to the school and talk to them about it. 5 days! Wow!

My cousin ran into this same issue and at her child's school they screened kids within a month or two of the cut off and if they "passed" they were put into a class called "early primary" instead of Kindergarten. But they all then moved up to first grade. 

It's worth asking!

jlw2505

In the district that we open enroll to, kids need to test to start early and that is for kindergarten.  The PreK program sticks to the date set with no exceptions other than at one school that has lower enrollment for the PreK class and they are testing letting kids with fall birthdays (9-1 cut-off) start the PreK class early but they will end up repeating the program and not start kindy unless they test to start early.  I have no clue how many kids actually started the program that were in the window of 9-1 to 12-1 birthdays though.  My home district does not allow kids to test to start early.  I personally would not have my child start early and I am one that held back my summer birthday DD due to her not being ready at all and it was recommended by her PreK teachers and her speech teachers although she has ADHD and a severe speech delay which play into that decision.  I have plenty of friends with summer b-days that started on-time and a few with fall b-days and all waited that extra year and are so happy they did. 

Gummybear

Just a lurker, but I wanted to chime in. My daughter misses the cut off by 6 days. I have been worrying about this basically since she was born, but we have decided NOT to push to get her in early, despite the fact that she is very much ahead of the curve academically and socially. We have several reasons. Many people redshirt their children so chances are, she won't be the oldest anyway. She is emotionally still very much her age, and I worry that this might cause issues later on. Everyone I have spoken to (literally a dozen teachers, a few administrators) have told me that even though children may seem "ahead" at this time in their life, their younger age tends to affect them through adolescence and the teen years. I have not spoken to one single person who would advocate sending a child early.

We have other options, such as an "older 4" preschool program. And I figure if she is really THAT much ahead and out of place, the educators, who I trust, would be the ones advocating moving her up. I would HATE to push for it now and have her held back later on.

Ciarrai

I wouldn't push for it at all.  There are so many advantages to being the oldest in the class...and chances are she won't be the oldest with how many people "red shirt" these days.  DD#1 is a May baby and we have a September 1st cut off.  She has kids over a year older than her in her Kindy because a lot of summer babies (even May - especially boys) are being kept out.  It's not an intelligence thing at all.  It's a maturity thing.  It's not just now and Kindy, but it's when they're in 5th grade and the 11-12 year olds are talking about boys and the 10 year olds are still playing with dolls.  It's the bullying and the social skills that are so important.

Jen&Len

DS will miss the cutoff by 7 days. We did start him "early" in a 3 year old preschool class this fall even though he's technically still 2 for a few more weeks.  But we won't start him early in kindergarten.  I think academically, he would be fine, but socially, he probably wouldn't.  We plan on having him do Kindergarten twice...once at the preschool and once at the public school.

 One of my friends who thought her son was ready did test him when he was 4 and he ended up testing at a 1st grade level, socially and academically.  The school not only put him in Kindergarten, but they put him in the gifted track.

 

n&bcarlson

It wouldn't hurt to talk to the teachers about your concerns, especially the regressing to younger behaviors.  It might be that you could have her moved to the pre-K class for a challenge and then, instead of moving ahead to kindergarten, she could do pre-K again so she would start "real" school at the age mandated by your district.  It's not like repeating a preschool class is the same as repeating something like 3rd grade.  Arts, crafts, stories, and learning letters and numbers are the types of things kids can do ad infinitum.