Birthday is after September 1st - Are there any schools that will consider my November born child?

[Anonymous]

Are there any private schools in MD/DC/VA who don't abide by the September 1st birthday rule? Are all private schools required to do so or is that optional?

[Anonymous]

I'm assuming you have a younger child. For what it's worth, my older daughter's birthday is in October. She is very advanced (aren't all the kids of DCUM parents?), and we were thinking about pushing her ahead. We did not; she is one of the oldest in her class. It has been terrific for her! She is a leader in almost all areas: social, academic, athletic. She's now in 7th grade.

[Anonymous]

It might give you some perspective to realize that not only will the independent schools NOT take a dc with a November birthday, but they also often won't admit dc's with late summer birthdays because they prefer more mature dcs ("summer boys" especially are often out of luck in the admissions game).

[Anonymous]

The trend now is to wait--even kids with early summer birthdays aren't starting school when they would have when we were kids. So your child might be younger that others by a LOT. My son's birthday is 9/1--he'll be 4 and we're going to go ahead and do pre-K next year, but we may end up doing it twice.

[Anonymous]

Consider June 1 the December 31 of our childhood.

It is insane. I feel bad for the kids who are "starting late" who will soon be more than a year older than their classmates. It is not a pretty situation and eventhough it is the "trend", it doesn't make it right.

[Anonymous]

I'm in the same situation and looked high and low and posted on other message boards etc. I'm in Maryland. Basically you may find some Montessori schools that will use December 31st by age 3 and potty trained as part of the entrance criteria and then when it comes to the things that they consider the Pre-K or Kindergarten schedule or curriculum your November child may be evaluated to go into the Pre-K or K type schedule early, or it may be teacher recommendation no matter late or early birthday, or they could say the day he/she turns 5 they can go to the afternoon/K program. You have to look at websites and call around. That said, it still doesn't guarantee you early 1st grade at a public school since the date cutoff still applies thru 1st grade. You would basically need to apply for early entrance 1st grade and have your child evaluated at the local school. The current policy for early admission 1st grade is that your child starts in K and they make a decision within the first six weeks of school. Almost like your child "skips" kindergarten if you apply for early entrance 1st and they think he/she is ready for 1st. Again, key thing - no guarantees - you are rolling the dice. With private schools as someone said, they don't even like to take late summer birthdays much less someone past the Sept 1 cutoff. With DC public school anyway - I don't think they have early entrance policies in place yet - I had e-mailed to check.

As for why all the schools stick so closely with the state cutoff - I think it is a combination of some of the private schools - that have grade schools - maybe having those date cutoffs even before Maryland moved their dates to Sept 1st and some of it may be if you get certain funding or are designated a certain way you have to follow the State guidelines. So bottom line is you may find some schools in DC, VA (and I didn't even really see any in Maryland) that would take October as a cutoff for preschool etc. - but past that is very rare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Consider June 1 the December 31 of our childhood.

It is insane. I feel bad for the kids who are "starting late" who will soon be more than a year older than their classmates. It is not a pretty situation and eventhough it is the "trend", it doesn't make it right.

The way things are going with the cutoffs moving back, people optionalyl redshirting and some private schools unofficially wanting the late summer birthdays to wait a year to just make the cutoff June 1st. Kindergarten as we know it will someday be the equivalent of 2nd grade and they will want the kids to be almost six before starting.

[Anonymous]

So what do you do with an almost two-year-old who misses the 9/1 cutoff? I can't just let the child sit around at home for a full year! Do I just fill his time with Gymboree-type programs, or sign up for playgroups like Little Graces/Intown?? Ideas/experience welcome!

[Anonymous]

Poster 22:38 here. You could look into playgroups. The other option is to look into a daycare setting where you like the 2 year old and preschool room. Not always, but they may allow a child to move up to the 2 year old room (in an infant-pre-K setting) when the child is close to 2 and there is space in the room. Kids that will be 2 by Sept 1st could be moving from an infant-preK daycare to pre-schools that start at age 2 and may create a space for your child. The other option is to see if there is a preschool that has rolling admissions and that it would be possibe to start in December or January.

[Anonymous]

What about a coop program? I'm starting to investigate that for my October baby b/c I think he would really enjoy/benefit from some sort of structured routine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So what do you do with an almost two-year-old who misses the 9/1 cutoff? I can't just let the child sit around at home for a full year!

Actually you could--that's probably what most of us did when we were 2! I don't think you need to worry about filling his time. One or two classes a week or a small playgroup is probably plenty of group time. After all many kids who go to preschool at 2 or 2 1/2 only go for a few hours a week.