does anyone know anything about transitional kinder?

mcunningham

i am curious if your child can attend transitional kinder if they are age appropriate for kinder?

my son has a summer bday and we will not be sending him to kinder next year so i am curious if he would be eligible for transitional. i tried calling the school district and they seemed to think he could. they said there will be an orientation in jan, but it would be nice to know this before then!

jsugrin

Tranitional kinder for the 2012-2013 is only for kids with birthdays Nov 2- Dec. 2.

In my district they are not putting out any info, IMO in hopes to reduce the amount of kids they have for TK.  Not a word on their website and my multiple phone calls and emails went unanswered, it was only once I finally got the right person on the phone that I got some very simple info I needed.

Ok, so that turned in to a bit of a rant but no Tyler wouldn't be eligible to attend under the basic rules.  Also from what I was told TK is going to be very ,very basic some I'm not sure he'd get much out of it.

mcunningham

wow - i just got a call back from the superintendant and spoke with him for about 20 minutes. he actually said that in our district, they have a ton of lee-way and kids that are "age-ready" for kinder can be put in transitional kinder. he also said that at the end of transitional kinder, if they feel the child is ready, they can move them directly into 1st grade.

i have a feeling this will vary from district to district, but i am thrilled! fyi - we are in the south bay.

jsugrin

That's really wonderful!  Super awesome as well that the Sup called you back directly, shows your in a good district. It really only makes sense since they would be paying for the kiddo anyway should you choose to send them to kinder.  Surprisingly my district is prepared to promote TK kids mid year or promote them on to 1st the following year which surprised me.

Your district may be much more on the ball but I was told they will be working on colors, shapes, letters ect.  Really basic stuff .  She pretty much said kids with 1-2 years of preschool will probably be promoted, and this is talking about  Nov. kidddos.

Lefdeep

I teach Kindergarten and in our district they haven't completely figured out how they are going to do TK so they haven't sent out information.  This is what they've talked about so far.  TK kids will join our kindergarten classes in the afternoons.  They want us to stick with curriculum during the day and then have more free play in the afternoons.  They're trying to get a task force together to figure out curriculum for TK.  It's going to suck because I don't know if I'll be able to cover all of my curriculum for Kindergarten during the mornings and TK's will be getting stuff twice.  I think a lot of districts are hoping the state changes the law, because with so many budget cuts it's hard to financially support TKs.  The one upside is that I have 30 kids in my class currently and if TK's are included I'll have less Kindergarteners in the mornings. 

 Hope this helps.

carmeng

I'm glad you got some answers but you are correct - it will vary from district to district and in some cases from one school to the next.

Some districts are still planning and haven't figured it out yet. It sounds like yours is on the right track though. That's awesome!