Question about enrolling my kintergartner in Prince william county school (spring break, homes) - City-Data Forum

Myfam · 12-03-2009, 01:36 PM

Hi Friends,

We are planning to move to gainsville from fairfax during feb 2010. My question is how soon should we enroll our kintergartner in public school in the area ( which would be bucklandmills/or tyler). Actually we have a trip planned earlier in march so that is it possible that i can enroll my kid after that in april. i am planning to pull 'm out from his curreny school in feb.
is that okay that he loses 1 month of school? or does prince william county has any strict rule regarding that?
Please help me as iam completely new to the place.

Denton56 · 12-03-2009, 10:06 PM

Laws in Prince William are no different than the rules in any other county in Virginia. It is not legal for your child to be out of school for a month.

Personally, I would not remove my child from school for a month without a very, very, good reason and without the lesson plans for that month. Do you know what he will miss that month? Will you home school him for that month? Do kindergartners take the SOL tests? If so, he would be taking them in May and may not have enough time to catch up, unless you home school him for that month.

FLgirl367 · 12-04-2009, 04:24 AM

Do you have the option to just homeschool the remainder of the year. That is what I would do if we moved with only one quarter of the year remaining

Myfam · 12-04-2009, 09:25 AM

Thanks Denton and vAMom for your inputs. VaMom, home schooling is out of option as i would be working.
Actually iam in a dilemma as this trip is really important for us and i am confused whether to enroll him in school after the trip or enroll him first and then take leave. beacuse he wont be coming back to the same school as he is in now as we are moving from fairfax county.

Claire2900 · 12-04-2009, 10:18 AM

You need to download the paperwork from the PW county website and get his records from the pediatrician. PW schools will not take his medical information from another school outside of the county. I would complete that information in early January and then register him at his new school right before you move. Principals actually decide if a child has missed too many days in order to repeat a grade. I'm not clear on how long your trip in March is and why that would necessitate to have your child out of school for a prolonged period.

Myfam · 12-06-2009, 05:58 PM

claire i am working on it. we'll be gone for 3 weeks, we have to travel outside country to attend an important family affair. Theres no way that i can leave my kid here and go.

Claire2900 · 12-08-2009, 11:06 AM

PW will ask for prior school records so I think it will be hard to get around the fact that your child will miss 3 weeks of school. I would be up front about it and see what accomodations can be made for missed school work, etc. My neighbor went through this and was told that the individual principals make the assessment of what deems too many absences to necessitate repeating.

Myfam · 12-08-2009, 12:22 PM

Thanks claire for the suggestions, yes i am planning to let the school know and see what they says. btb any idea that how long your neighbour's kid was off from school? was repetiion needed in their case?

militarymom · 12-09-2009, 05:19 AM

You will be fine. Have you called the school you are going to be moving to and ask them what their recommendation was?

We moved last year from southern ca to nova and I had my Kindergartner out of school for at least 3 weeks while we drove cross country, got settled etc. One of those weeks was spring break week anyways so 3 weeks of actual school...but out for a month if you include the breaks between the two schools.
I did not have any registration set up prior other than having paperwork filled out and ready to go. I brought what i could from his old school (his school file, final report from his teacher listing the latest testing they did etc) but other than that we just went in and that day they gave him a classroom. He was fine and didn't miss a thing (actually he was well ahead of the game since they have different standards here). He had 6 weeks til the end of the school year. I was going to just finish up the year with homeschooling since he basically already had all of the listed SOLs back at his old school but I wanted him to meet some other kids.

I did supplement him daily while we moved. He had to read and do the same homework he had in his K class when he left so he had to read 3 books to me and do math worksheets (simple addition, subtraction kind of stuff). I just got a workbook for first grade at target and that was on track with the K curriculum. So technically I did school him in interim but not formally. To formally homeschool you need to write an intent to the board. At the end of K though Virginia law does NOT require homeschoolers to get tested...only starting in first grade so if you chose to do that route also you will not have to cover that cost.
Before you leave the current school have the teacher run a quick assessment across the academic areas and give that to you so you know and the new school knows what your child has already mastered.
For us, it was everything so they didn't do a thing (testing wise) for my son.
You can get the SOLs online so you can take a look at what skills they expect a K'er to know by the end of the year and focus on those things during the time your child will be out of class too.

Best wishes to you.

Claire2900 · 12-09-2009, 08:54 AM

The issue with my friend was 20 days absent over the entire school year. I think your situation is much better given you can plan for this and take a proactive approach to missed school work, etc.