Exceptions to the Prek3 Sept 30 cut off date?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid has a late October birthday. We were told there are no exceptions. It ended up being the right grade for her, and she actually liked being one of the oldest. In early school, she was often a “helper” for the teacher for the younger kids.

Btw, there will be many “borderline” kids like your daughter in preqchool. There were at least 6 or so kids with October and November birthdays in her preschool class, and they kept them all together so that there was an older pre-k 3 class and a younger pre-k class. So everyone was with the right group, developmentally. She will not stand out.

I wonder if this is a typical practice across schools? Seems like a great idea.

No, some schools try to ensure each classroom has a balance of ages. Because the parents of the oldest kids in the "young" class will complain about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi,
we live in DC and our daughter will turn 3 on October 20th. Has anyone heard of any PreK-3 programs with a later cut off date than September 30th, or any exceptions which would enable us to register her in DC for the 2025/26 year. She is very advanced developmentally and we would love to not pay an extra year of daycare...
Thanks!

There are no exceptions to the cutoff date in DCPS that would enable you to register her early. Even if your child was born on October 1.

Yup. I know kids who missed the cutoff by literally minutes and their parents could not get an exception.

It's because the universal PK program is an entitlement benefit, not regular school. If DC didn't have universal PK, and you started in public in Kindergarten at age 5, I think there would be more flexibility for special cases. The schools want kids in the developmentally appropriate grade.

But precisely because the PK program functions as free childcare, and is an expensive benefit that DC invests a ton of money into (because they created a high quality program -- PK teachers in DCPS are almost universally highly qualified, with graduate degrees in ECE and many have long tenures, plus the district has invested a ton in facilities because programs that serve this age group have very specific facilities requirements), they have to be strict about the cut off. If they make an exception for anyone, then a huge group of people will want the same exception, and it would bankrupt the program.

Whereas you wouldn't see the same domino effect if we were talking about K because by then families have figured out their childcare and childcare for older kids is also cheaper. People used to just pay for preschool or have a SAHP (or both). And K is a lot more demanding than PK so parents thought harder about rushing younger kids into it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid has a late October birthday. We were told there are no exceptions. It ended up being the right grade for her, and she actually liked being one of the oldest. In early school, she was often a “helper” for the teacher for the younger kids.

Btw, there will be many “borderline” kids like your daughter in preqchool. There were at least 6 or so kids with October and November birthdays in her preschool class, and they kept them all together so that there was an older pre-k 3 class and a younger pre-k class. So everyone was with the right group, developmentally. She will not stand out.

I wonder if this is a typical practice across schools? Seems like a great idea.

I don't think it sounds like a great idea because there is actually a lot of data on the benefits for preschool age kids of being in a mixed age range classroom. It's part of the reason Montessori education is so popular for this age group. Kids benefit greatly from both being able to see older kids performing tasks they are still learning, and in being able to demonstrate tasks for younger kids. Peer-to-peer learning is one of the best ways for young children to learn classroom behaviors. So by separating the oldest and youngest kids, you may actually stunt development in both sets by depriving them of opportunities to both learn from and teach to each other.

A number of DCPS schools actually have at least one combined PK3/PK4 classroom (in a regular DCPS, not Montessori) and there are good pedagogical reasons for doing it this way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid has a late October birthday. We were told there are no exceptions. It ended up being the right grade for her, and she actually liked being one of the oldest. In early school, she was often a “helper” for the teacher for the younger kids.

Btw, there will be many “borderline” kids like your daughter in preqchool. There were at least 6 or so kids with October and November birthdays in her preschool class, and they kept them all together so that there was an older pre-k 3 class and a younger pre-k class. So everyone was with the right group, developmentally. She will not stand out.

I wonder if this is a typical practice across schools? Seems like a great idea.

I don't think it sounds like a great idea because there is actually a lot of data on the benefits for preschool age kids of being in a mixed age range classroom. It's part of the reason Montessori education is so popular for this age group. Kids benefit greatly from both being able to see older kids performing tasks they are still learning, and in being able to demonstrate tasks for younger kids. Peer-to-peer learning is one of the best ways for young children to learn classroom behaviors. So by separating the oldest and youngest kids, you may actually stunt development in both sets by depriving them of opportunities to both learn from and teach to each other.

A number of DCPS schools actually have at least one combined PK3/PK4 classroom (in a regular DCPS, not Montessori) and there are good pedagogical reasons for doing it this way.

Right but will they still like it when she's the oldest of the combined group in PK4?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid has a late October birthday. We were told there are no exceptions. It ended up being the right grade for her, and she actually liked being one of the oldest. In early school, she was often a “helper” for the teacher for the younger kids.

Btw, there will be many “borderline” kids like your daughter in preqchool. There were at least 6 or so kids with October and November birthdays in her preschool class, and they kept them all together so that there was an older pre-k 3 class and a younger pre-k class. So everyone was with the right group, developmentally. She will not stand out.

I wonder if this is a typical practice across schools? Seems like a great idea.

I don't think it sounds like a great idea because there is actually a lot of data on the benefits for preschool age kids of being in a mixed age range classroom. It's part of the reason Montessori education is so popular for this age group. Kids benefit greatly from both being able to see older kids performing tasks they are still learning, and in being able to demonstrate tasks for younger kids. Peer-to-peer learning is one of the best ways for young children to learn classroom behaviors. So by separating the oldest and youngest kids, you may actually stunt development in both sets by depriving them of opportunities to both learn from and teach to each other.

A number of DCPS schools actually have at least one combined PK3/PK4 classroom (in a regular DCPS, not Montessori) and there are good pedagogical reasons for doing it this way.

The problem is that in this scenario the older students are never the younger students and never get the advantage of seeing older kids performing tasks they are still learning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid has a late October birthday. We were told there are no exceptions. It ended up being the right grade for her, and she actually liked being one of the oldest. In early school, she was often a “helper” for the teacher for the younger kids.

Btw, there will be many “borderline” kids like your daughter in preqchool. There were at least 6 or so kids with October and November birthdays in her preschool class, and they kept them all together so that there was an older pre-k 3 class and a younger pre-k class. So everyone was with the right group, developmentally. She will not stand out.

I wonder if this is a typical practice across schools? Seems like a great idea.

We toured maybe 2-3 DCPS/DCPCS preschools, and they all did the same thing. But it’s probably dependent on number of kids in each grade/how many classes they have. One even did a mixed class that was pre-k 3 and 4 together, but all kids were within months of each other (so like the August to December kids who would be younger or older for their grade). It worked out very well in our experience. There are a lot of kids right before and right after the cut off— it is not a unique situation, and preschools know how to deal!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid has a late October birthday. We were told there are no exceptions. It ended up being the right grade for her, and she actually liked being one of the oldest. In early school, she was often a “helper” for the teacher for the younger kids.

Btw, there will be many “borderline” kids like your daughter in preqchool. There were at least 6 or so kids with October and November birthdays in her preschool class, and they kept them all together so that there was an older pre-k 3 class and a younger pre-k class. So everyone was with the right group, developmentally. She will not stand out.

I wonder if this is a typical practice across schools? Seems like a great idea.

I don't think it sounds like a great idea because there is actually a lot of data on the benefits for preschool age kids of being in a mixed age range classroom. It's part of the reason Montessori education is so popular for this age group. Kids benefit greatly from both being able to see older kids performing tasks they are still learning, and in being able to demonstrate tasks for younger kids. Peer-to-peer learning is one of the best ways for young children to learn classroom behaviors. So by separating the oldest and youngest kids, you may actually stunt development in both sets by depriving them of opportunities to both learn from and teach to each other.

A number of DCPS schools actually have at least one combined PK3/PK4 classroom (in a regular DCPS, not Montessori) and there are good pedagogical reasons for doing it this way.

Right but will they still like it when she's the oldest of the combined group in PK4?

My kid might be the oldest in her preschool— by a week or two. There are lots of kids born in October, November, and December. The true oldest is not going to stand out that much. I’m not sure she even knows she’s the oldest given that there are so many other kids born within weeks of her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid has a late October birthday. We were told there are no exceptions. It ended up being the right grade for her, and she actually liked being one of the oldest. In early school, she was often a “helper” for the teacher for the younger kids.

Btw, there will be many “borderline” kids like your daughter in preqchool. There were at least 6 or so kids with October and November birthdays in her preschool class, and they kept them all together so that there was an older pre-k 3 class and a younger pre-k class. So everyone was with the right group, developmentally. She will not stand out.

I wonder if this is a typical practice across schools? Seems like a great idea.

I don't think it sounds like a great idea because there is actually a lot of data on the benefits for preschool age kids of being in a mixed age range classroom. It's part of the reason Montessori education is so popular for this age group. Kids benefit greatly from both being able to see older kids performing tasks they are still learning, and in being able to demonstrate tasks for younger kids. Peer-to-peer learning is one of the best ways for young children to learn classroom behaviors. So by separating the oldest and youngest kids, you may actually stunt development in both sets by depriving them of opportunities to both learn from and teach to each other.

A number of DCPS schools actually have at least one combined PK3/PK4 classroom (in a regular DCPS, not Montessori) and there are good pedagogical reasons for doing it this way.

Right but will they still like it when she's the oldest of the combined group in PK4?

My kid might be the oldest in her preschool— by a week or two. There are lots of kids born in October, November, and December. The true oldest is not going to stand out that much. I’m not sure she even knows she’s the oldest given that there are so many other kids born within weeks of her.

And I’ll add that my kid is not necessarily the biggest, or smartest, or more mature just because she is 3 week older than another kid! Kids are all sizes, with all kinds of abilities, in the 3-5 age range. They also do joint activities with the younger class frequently, which is good for mixing up the ages. We’ve been really happy with DCPS preschool, even if we had to wait another year to start!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid has a late October birthday. We were told there are no exceptions. It ended up being the right grade for her, and she actually liked being one of the oldest. In early school, she was often a “helper” for the teacher for the younger kids.

Btw, there will be many “borderline” kids like your daughter in preqchool. There were at least 6 or so kids with October and November birthdays in her preschool class, and they kept them all together so that there was an older pre-k 3 class and a younger pre-k class. So everyone was with the right group, developmentally. She will not stand out.

I wonder if this is a typical practice across schools? Seems like a great idea.

I don't think it sounds like a great idea because there is actually a lot of data on the benefits for preschool age kids of being in a mixed age range classroom. It's part of the reason Montessori education is so popular for this age group. Kids benefit greatly from both being able to see older kids performing tasks they are still learning, and in being able to demonstrate tasks for younger kids. Peer-to-peer learning is one of the best ways for young children to learn classroom behaviors. So by separating the oldest and youngest kids, you may actually stunt development in both sets by depriving them of opportunities to both learn from and teach to each other.

A number of DCPS schools actually have at least one combined PK3/PK4 classroom (in a regular DCPS, not Montessori) and there are good pedagogical reasons for doing it this way.

Right but will they still like it when she's the oldest of the combined group in PK4?

We have an Oct 1st birthday DD. Had her in a DCPS with a mixed PK3/PK4 class for her PK3 year and it was a good fit. Then moved her into a PK4 only class for her PK4 year; once the other kids mostly had a year of school under their belts, the age difference didn’t matter quite as much. By 1st or 2nd grade, you mostly can’t tell who the older and younger kids are. This seems like a big deal now — and it can be for ECE — but it’s really a short term problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid has a late October birthday. We were told there are no exceptions. It ended up being the right grade for her, and she actually liked being one of the oldest. In early school, she was often a “helper” for the teacher for the younger kids.

Btw, there will be many “borderline” kids like your daughter in preqchool. There were at least 6 or so kids with October and November birthdays in her preschool class, and they kept them all together so that there was an older pre-k 3 class and a younger pre-k class. So everyone was with the right group, developmentally. She will not stand out.

I wonder if this is a typical practice across schools? Seems like a great idea.

I don't think it sounds like a great idea because there is actually a lot of data on the benefits for preschool age kids of being in a mixed age range classroom. It's part of the reason Montessori education is so popular for this age group. Kids benefit greatly from both being able to see older kids performing tasks they are still learning, and in being able to demonstrate tasks for younger kids. Peer-to-peer learning is one of the best ways for young children to learn classroom behaviors. So by separating the oldest and youngest kids, you may actually stunt development in both sets by depriving them of opportunities to both learn from and teach to each other.

A number of DCPS schools actually have at least one combined PK3/PK4 classroom (in a regular DCPS, not Montessori) and there are good pedagogical reasons for doing it this way.

Right but will they still like it when she's the oldest of the combined group in PK4?

My kid might be the oldest in her preschool— by a week or two. There are lots of kids born in October, November, and December. The true oldest is not going to stand out that much. I’m not sure she even knows she’s the oldest given that there are so many other kids born within weeks of her.

This. The most common birth months in this country are July through October, fun fact from BabyCenter. So there will be other fall birthdays. About 10% of the population is born in October and half of them are girls, it's not like OP's situation is rare.

They do know each other's birthdays because of the parties though. My October 1 DD was the oldest and she made sure everyone knew it.

[Anonymous]

As others have noted, there is zero flexibility. Sorry. My kid is October 10 and in PK 3 now. He is the oldest but is fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a middle school kid with a September birthday that was super advanced in prek but is now struggling. My gut told me then to hold her back then and I wish we had. Also, you will never regret having your child around longer.

OP doesn’t like her 2 year old enough to pay for age appropriate care, what makes you think she’ll want her around when she’s 17?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a middle school kid with a September birthday that was super advanced in prek but is now struggling. My gut told me then to hold her back then and I wish we had. Also, you will never regret having your child around longer.

OP doesn’t like her 2 year old enough to pay for age appropriate care, what makes you think she’ll want her around when she’s 17?

Thanks everyone for your comments! Very helpful.
It's a shame people like this feel the need to be horrible on online forums. You have no idea who you are writing to and what kind of parent they are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:no. I looked into it for an October 2 birthday. Bethune used to do it but not anymore.

If the child qualifies for special ed they can go as soon as they turn 3 (joining a class mid-year) but if that applied to you you'd probably already know about it.

This. My 15yo was in one of the last classes at Bethune to accept late bdays.

My just turned 10 year old was offered a spot when they still had the December cut off. But I think that was the last year.

[Anonymous]

In so old I remember when people used to fight the Sept 30th deadline claiming “gifted” or “advanced” child. Then the next year they would demand that their child be allowed to repeat the grade, so they could be the oldest and biggest kid in the class. Usually boys. Good times.