Is K required in Montgomery County?

[Anonymous]

Pardon my ignorance. I was wondering if K is required in Montgomery County? In some places K is not required (even though schools have it) and children can enter school starting at 1st grade. I have a feeling it is required, but I thought I would ask.

[Anonymous]

Yes, unless you homeschool. If you homeschool, there is a process that you have to follow. You can call your local ES for guidance or just go on the MCPS website. You can also get the kindergarten cirriculum on the website if you are interested.

[Anonymous]

Yes, K is required. If a 1st grade-aged student transfers from another location in which K is not required--or a country in which children start school at a different age--the child could have the opportunity to enter 1st grade rather K. But you can't just keep your kid at home for an extra year and go straight to 1st.

[Anonymous]

Curiosity question, how would anyone know? My kids go to private K and I never filled out anything with the state or the public school system. How would anyone know if you did not send them to private?

[Anonymous]

Op again. Along those same lines, what about transitional K? Is that treated the same as K? or would a child have to do K (coming from a transitional K program)?

[Anonymous]

If your kids do not enroll in school you are supposed to fill out a form and get a waiver. If you don't maybe no one would know. But if they do know, your child is considered truant and there are fines for that. Really, what's the big deal. Either enroll your kid or get a waiver.

[Anonymous]

My child went to private KG and I called the school to ask if I needed to notify anyone..and they said no. We enrolled for first grade and had no issues. They did want him KG records so I guess if we didn't have any it could have been an issue.

[Anonymous]

what is KG?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:what is KG?

Kindergarten=K=KG

[Anonymous]

If you went to private K, the school would get the K records from the private school. That's how they would know.

[Anonymous]

Just wanted to add that K is where they do a lot of transition, because they know that a lot of kids might never have been in "school" before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you went to private K, the school would get the K records from the private school. That's how they would know.

My child is repeating the 4 yo year at a private school instead of going to K with his peers. I guarantee you that our local mcps school has no idea he exiists, much less where he goes to school. I would guess, in theory, if you never enroll in school, they won't know that they should be there. If caught (not sure how that would happen) you would be breaking the truancy laws b/c children of school age must be 'schooled' somehow and parents are accountable for that. You have many choices about how you want to account for that, however.

The reason people (at least in MD) might not want to 'get a waiver' is that its not that easy. You must be in an umbrella homeschool group, under a private school supervision (both cost $$, but the amt varies widely) or you must keep meticulous records of what you teach and that your child is learning. Its a pain in the neck at the least.

[Anonymous]

Getting a waiver is no big deal. If you kid is in an accredited school program, such as a pre-k, you can get the waiver.

[Anonymous]

Just wondering why you would want to start your child in 1st grade without going to K. Most 1st graders have already developed social skills in K and pre school while a kid brand new to school in 1st grade will feel culture shock. The socially developed kids in general won't have much patience for a child just learning how to socialize.

[Anonymous]

I'm the OP. The original intent of the post was just to find out if K was mandatory. My child is in a private transitional K. He really needs to go to 1st next year and not repeat K in public. I didn't make that clear though.