Change in first grade age requirements (home, preschools, law)

[Jai27]

I know this law just became effective this school year. What is the purpose of changing the age requirements for first grade? A child who is 6 on or before December 31 can enroll in first grade. There is no change to the kindergarten age requirements (5 on or before September 1). Just trying to understand why it has changed (especially since the kindergarten age requirements did not).

https://www.alsde.edu/sites/memos/Me.../FY16-2065.pdf

[MauraWSki]

I believe (and I may be wrong) that kindergarten is not mandatory to attend in Alabama but first grade is. It sounds like the rule is, "By the time your child is 6 they should legally be in some sort of school environment". Whether it's public, private or home school is at the parent's discretion but I believe they legally have to be in school.

[zenjenn]

The compulsory attendance age was changed from 7 to 6 a while ago. This was to effectively make Kindergarten mandatory when it was not before. The reason being that Kindergarten is no longer the half-day developmental program it used to be - it is now a full day school program in which most children are expected to obtain literacy. A child going into first grade without that may struggle these days, whereas in the past a child going into first grade with no literacy was common.

This new change with the window for 1st grade enrollment is news to me, but I would guess this is to give parents with kids on the older edge of the range a little more wiggle room for 1st grade enrollment, especially since many states have Dec cutoff dates and in the past unless you child *completed* Kinder in the previous state you could not enroll the child in 1st grade. Similarly there are many private preschools that include Kindergarten but use a Dec 31 date.

I have a September child and we came from California with a Dec cutoff date into what would have been her Kinder year in California. Using Alabama's Sept 1 cutoff date ended up being much better for her developmentally, but for some kids it could entail repeating some or most of Kindergarten when they don't need it.

[MisterEd51]

When the date was set for September 1st didn't school start sometime in early September? That would make sense since all first graders would be 6 by the time school started. With school starting in August some first graders were only 5 when school started. If so then September 1st date needed to change. December 31 makes sense because no matter when school started the cutoff date would never have to change again.

[just_another_gal]

Yeah, does this affect any kids who will attend Kindergarden? As far as I can tell, no public or private kindergarden allows kids after the September 1 cutoff.