Early Entrance into First Grade

[Anonymous]

According to the MoCo guidelines, children applying for early entrance into first grade have to spend the first 6 weeks in the Kindergarten class. My daughter whose birthday is a few days past September 1 is finishing up Kindergarten in a Montessori school. I really hope she doesn't have to wait for 6 weeks before starting first grade. Do you know if 6 weeks is flexible or not?

[Anonymous]

Call your elementary school and find out. Perhaps they can do some type of evaluation over the summer so she can skip K. My guess is that they will be happy to put her in Grade 1..it saves them $$! Good Luck.

[Anonymous]

I think its "up to" 6 weeks. There was a girl in my son's class last year that did this. It was around 3 or 4 weeks before they moved her. Sounds like a hard way to start off the year to me. Also just be aware that there is a lot of writing in MCPS first grade.

[Anonymous]

My daughter did kinder in montessori when, her b'day is in October, and she went right into 1st grade. No waiting 6 weeks. When you register her, just say she already did kinder.

[Anonymous]

I think the six weeks is flexible. They need enough time to assess your child to be sure she will be successful in first grade. Only problem is that the early part of the year is so busy for teachers that is sometimes takes close to six weeks to make a decision. Good luck.