Starting School Age in Plano ISD (Dallas: credit, transfer, private schools)

[Robzherenow]

Our son just turned 3 on Sept. 09. We were told that he may lose a year of school because Texas or County state law requires that the student be 4 years of age on Sept 1st of their Kindergarten year.

Does or did anyone else have children who birthday falls Sept 1st ? Did they lose a year? Any other options/alternatives to pursue- private school?

[pepper131]

I thought they had to be 5 by Sept 1st to enter K.

My oldest son's B-day is Sept 14th. We have never felt that he lost a year.

[FarNorthDallas]

State of Texas is 5 by Sept 1 for kinder and 6 by Sept 1 for 1st grade. You are not losing a year. Plenty of people hold their kids back who are born in May, June, July and August, so your Sept baby won't be the oldest.

[Big G]

From the PISD Web site:

Children must be five years old on or before September 1 to be admitted to kindergarten.

In order to attend first grade in Plano ISD, a child must be six years old on or before September 1 or have been previously enrolled in the first grade of a public school in another state or have completed public school kindergarten in another state. Children who are underage but will become six between September 1 and December 31 may enroll in first grade through the district's kindergarten acceleration procedures.

The child should be registered during the regular Kindergarten Roundup at his/her school. Parents must attend a district informational meeting in April and apply for kindergarten acceleration. Assessment sessions are scheduled in June. Students who move into the district in July and early August may be considered for acceleration assessment. The deadline for receiving these students is September 1.

For further information regarding testing of underage students for first grade enrollment, contact Plano ISD's Office of Credit by Exam at 469-752-8703.

What all this means:

1) There is ZERO chance PISD will enroll your kid in kindergarten if he's not 5 years old by Sept. 1 of the kindergarten year. They just don't do that for any reason.

2) You can't get around this by enrolling your kid in private kindergarten, then switching him to PISD in 1st grade. They enforce the age rules strictly for all transfers except for public school out-of-state transfers. He'll just get put into a 2nd year of kindergarten.

3) The only remote chance you have of making this work is to apply for kindergarten acceleration (basically applying to skip kindergarten). You would do this in April of the year you think your son should start 1st grade, but PISD thinks he should start kindergarten. Be warned - the standards they apply for this are ridiculously high - I've heard rumors that they expect kids to pass the 3rd grade TAKS test. I have never known of a kid that has managed to be accelerated.

On a positive note, PISD also has (more reasonable) standards in place to allow kids to skip higher grades. In particular, high-performing kids have been known to skip 3rd or 4th grade, and occasionally 2nd grade.

[Big G]

Originally Posted by FarNorthDallas

State of Texas is 5 by Sept 1 for kinder and 6 by Sept 1 for 1st grade. You are not losing a year. Plenty of people hold their kids back who are born in May, June, July and August, so your Sept baby won't be the oldest.

No kidding. In the private schools like St. Marks, this is almost expected. The youngest kids in those classes usually have February or March birthdays. Everyone else is held back. Makes for a bigger football team, I guess.

I have some sympathy for the OP. I'm not a fan of holding kids back unless they're lagging academically. But this isn't a case of being held back. I'm guessing he might be from a state with a Dec. cutoff, so it may just be a matter of re-defining in his head what a grade grouping should be.

Age rules aren't enforced in 2nd grade or beyond, so if the OP wanted to let his kid go though a few years of private school, that could work.