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Our 6 year old (November born) son will complete grade 1 in India next month. I have read about a September 1 cut-off for age eligibility in most states in the US. Since my husband's job requires us to move to the US, I would like to know whether our son will be able to go to grade 2 in the US in the coming academic session if his school leaving (transfer) certificate mentions that he has completed grade 1 and has been promoted to grade 2 or has started attending grade 2, as the case may be. We would be happy to apply to schools in advance, explaining the situation, if need be. It would be great if anyone could let us know how to ensure that our son has a smooth transition to grade 2 in the US, as we do not want our son to suffer on our account. Thanks!
You may want to put him in a private school for a year. You should be able to find one that will place him in the second grade. Then you may transfer him to a public school the year after. We put our daughter into a half-day kindergarten in a private school at age four. The following year she began first grade there. Once she had records that she had completed first grade, the public school to which she transferred placed her in second grade.
Other than her teeth falling out at the wrong times in elementary school and having to wait a year before driver's ed in high school, no one noticed that she was a year younger than her classmates. The decision worked well for her professionally. She was able to work in a research lab for a year before beginning medical school. She is very appreciative now that we made that decision for her at age four.
Your question is too broad and can't be answered simply. You need to know where you are going to live, and then research the schools that serve that area. If the public school/s cannot accommodate you, look at a private school as was mentioned above.
Depending on which state you're moving to, you might be able to consider cyber school. Cyber school has more potential room to advance in individual coursework as well if going a whole grade up for everything at once might be too much.
Depending on which state you're moving to, you might be able to consider cyber school. Cyber school has more potential room to advance in individual coursework as well if going a whole grade up for everything at once might be too much.
...and is even less likely to be accepted by a public school district than a credential from another country!
Public schools in the US have rather dated notions about age and ability related placement, so they are reluctant to accelerate (the academic term for grade skipping) students. In fairness to them though, it is also difficult to identify kids that will benefit from academic acceleration at younger ages, since so much (cognitive) ability is developmentally based - that is to say it's based on neural development, not on innate ability. For example, research has shown that most early readers become average readers a few years later. The "reading" parts of their brains just matured a bit earlier.
The local public school district will no doubt want to do its own assessment, whether with records or by interview. If you're determined, having test scores like WISC-C might be useful, but could backfire too, since public schools don't like aggressive parents.
If it's any comfort though, keep in mind that at this age, it probably doesn't matter too much since so much "learning" is developmentally based, not instruction based. Teachers are forced to deal with a broad range of abilities, since that's how kids are. Extension in the early school years is pretty easy for teachers, not that all like doing it, based on our experience with our kid! (one year one teacher forced everyone to read the same book at the same [slow] pace...)
Curiously, we found that private schools weren't necessarily better. One we dealt with was very firm on a "one size fits all" approach in their curriculum.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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The state education departments have strict age cutoff dates. Once enrolled, however, the school itself (principal and teachers) may advance a student to another level. For example, our oldest was tested as reading at the 7th grade level when starting 2nd grade. The teacher then gave her exams normally given at the end of the year in other subjects and she got nearly perfect scores. The principal called us in to discuss, and she ended up skipping second, and went on to 3rd.
Why do this to your kid.Let him grow with his peers .
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