Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
We live in Dallas, Texas. The cut off for Kindergarden in public schools is 5 years by September 1st. My child's will be 5 in November. The private schools around here are following the same rules (at least those that I have talked to so far). What about the home-schooling, or the online schools? Do they follow the same rules?
Do you know of any way around this?
Thank you!
P.S. Please don't write if you want to tell me it is not a good idea to start Kindergarden if the child is not 5 by Sept 1st. I respect your opinions. Everybody has the right to be different.
I would think that you could home-school for a couple of years and start your child off in second grade but I'm not sure how beneficial that would be for your child. Really the only person that can answer that is someone at your school district. I'm sure people move into the district from other states with different cut-off dates.
I don't know about the online schools, but you can homeschool at any age and timeframe. However, there is no guarantee that in Texas, he won't be put back with his age mates when he enrolls in school.
We started our daughter in a half-day kindergarten at 4 in a private school. At the end of the year, we, along with the principal, decided to have her continue in first grade. If it had not worked out, we would have transferred her to the public school kindergarten. Everything went fine, and she was always in the middle of her class striving, rather than at the top of the class chilling. She was happy to graduate from college a year early with two degrees, two teaching internships, an a half-dozen lab internships. She was nearly the youngest in her med school class, even after a full year working in a research lab doing brain surgery on primates.
Every child is different, and you have to make the decision for who the child is at every stage in life. We would not have made a similar decision for a boy, more than likely, because they mature differently than girls do. Our son was always nearly the oldest in his class, and he still had major problems in all areas of his life until he was in his early twenties. He's just as bright as his sister, but he was never very mature.
The OP's situation is also particular to Texas - the state law in Texas does not allow for early entrance unless the child passes a 3rd grade test to get into K.
Texas law stipulates that child be 5 as of 9/1 to enter Kindergarten, AND 6 as of 9/1 to enter first grade (Kindergarten is not mandatory in TX). If a child began in another state with different entrance ages, they would be evaluated on an individual basis if they were K or 1st grade (Georgia and California come to mind).
This applies to public and charter schools. Most private schools adhere as well. And there are reasons why.
We live in Dallas, Texas. The cut off for Kindergarden in public schools is 5 years by September 1st. My child's will be 5 in November. The private schools around here are following the same rules (at least those that I have talked to so far). What about the home-schooling, or the online schools? Do they follow the same rules?
Do you know of any way around this?
Thank you!
P.S. Please don't write if you want to tell me it is not a good idea to start Kindergarden if the child is not 5 by Sept 1st. I respect your opinions. Everybody has the right to be different.
Typically, the only way around it for a public school is for the school to agree to test your child and your child is able to show total proficiency on the entire test. Getting them to agree to the testing is extremely difficult, however. Also, getting a 5 yr old to perform that well on a test is also extremely difficult.
Homeschooling allows you to start and stop whenever you want and may be your only option to begin and continue early.
Some private schools will agree to let a child that doesn't meet the cutoff to join their Kindergarten, however it almost always means a repeat Kindergarten year when they are of age because it won't be considered their 'real' K year .
Texas law stipulates that child be 5 as of 9/1 to enter Kindergarten, AND 6 as of 9/1 to enter first grade (Kindergarten is not mandatory in TX). If a child began in another state with different entrance ages, they would be evaluated on an individual basis if they were K or 1st grade (Georgia and California come to mind).
This applies to public and charter schools. Most private schools adhere as well. And there are reasons why.
Yes, if we were to start Kindergarden in another state like California, and then move to Texas, the child would continuo as started. Now we have so many families moving in Dallas from other states with similar situations. This is a discrimination to the children in Texas, not to have the same opportunity, only because they started school in Texas.
The ISD will not test children before entering Kindergarden. The first available test is before entering the 1st grade. And it is as hard as the 3rd grade test, impossible to pass.
I was wandering about online schools. Will they follow the same rule, if there is no physical location? Would we be able to start on online school for Kindergarden and then move to 1st grade?
Moderator - Lehigh Valley, NEPA, Harrisburg, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Education and Colleges and Universities.
When I post in bold red, that is Moderator action and per the TOS can be discussed only via Direct Message.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
