How do late birthday kids do in school? (Fairfax County)

[Anonymous]

OP (13:58 doesn't read like other OP posts, but I'll presume it's OP): Your child is a perfect age for FCPS kindergarten. Your fears and concerns are unfounded. Relax and send her on time.

[Anonymous]

My dh and I both started K at 4. We had November and December birthdays, respectively. Dh was always an ok student. I was a very good student, but ended up taking a year off after HS (went to college, got very sick, came home) and I often wonder if I just needed that extra year. I worked as a nanny, and ended up deciding I wanted to go to college close to home.

My oldest had a March birthday, so it was a no brainer. He was reading chapter books, really good at math, but socially, I would say he was at/below his peers.

My middle son has a December Birthday. Incidentally he has some social/emotional developmental delays, and has an IEP. He was the one I thought really NEEDED the extra year, so was grateful to have the decision made by the 9/30 cutoff. He has had an amazing K year, almost like what he really needed was the all day structure that K brings him. Who knows if he was just ready, but he has had an amazing year so far. His teachers feel that despite his social/emotional delays, he is advanced academically.

My youngest has a 9/24 birthday, so will be just 1 year behind her brother in school. I know she will always be among the youngest, but, she is leaps and bounds above her brothers socially, and academically will be just fine.

So, I think for me, what I have learned is, I have went with the county mandated cutoffs, and all has turned out just fine. There is such a wide discrepency of ages in K, really, a December birthday will not even be the youngest, with the # that are red shirting these days.

[Anonymous]

15:38 again. FWIW, Dh and I both grew up in NY state. I believe they still have the 12/31 cutoff.

[Anonymous]

Op here, let me see if I can reword. I am speaking of the difference in school cutoff. In a district where Dec. 31 cutoff all kids from a birth year would be starting at the same year vs Sept. 30 where Oct, Nov, Dec start a year after. Based on my understanding parents who want to avoid this start with private kindergarten and test in later for 1st grade or transfer their children. It is sometimes allowed. The other option I have heard is to do a junior k class due to the extra year. For instance if you want your 2007 child in with other 2007 children instead of the oldest in a 2008 childrens class.

This still doesn't make much sense, though. I understand that with a Dec. 31 cutoff, all kids born in the same calendar year are in the same grade, but a year for these purposes is just a 12-month period. The cutoff is an arbitrary date. It has to fall somewhere, and there will always be kids whose birthdays are close to the cutoff, no matter what the cutoff is. If it's September 30th, then you still have kids ranging over a 12-month age span - someone is going to be the oldest and someone else is going to be 12 months younger. Sept. 30th doesn't coincide with the calendar year, but it doesn't affect the age range of kids in each grade. If the cutoff is Dec. 13, then you'd be saying the January kids who missed it by a few days or weeks have to "start a year later."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Op here, let me see if I can reword. I am speaking of the difference in school cutoff. In a district where Dec. 31 cutoff all kids from a birth year would be starting at the same year vs Sept. 30 where Oct, Nov, Dec start a year after. Based on my understanding parents who want to avoid this start with private kindergarten and test in later for 1st grade or transfer their children. It is sometimes allowed. The other option I have heard is to do a junior k class due to the extra year. For instance if you want your 2007 child in with other 2007 children instead of the oldest in a 2008 childrens class.

This still doesn't make much sense, though. I understand that with a Dec. 31 cutoff, all kids born in the same calendar year are in the same grade, but a year for these purposes is just a 12-month period. The cutoff is an arbitrary date. It has to fall somewhere, and there will always be kids whose birthdays are close to the cutoff, no matter what the cutoff is. If it's September 30th, then you still have kids ranging over a 12-month age span - someone is going to be the oldest and someone else is going to be 12 months younger. Sept. 30th doesn't coincide with the calendar year, but it doesn't affect the age range of kids in each grade. If the cutoff is Dec. 13, then you'd be saying the January kids who missed it by a few days or weeks have to "start a year later."

January kids would fall within their birth year.

[Anonymous]

But birth year doesn't really matter. It's just a span of twelve months which contains most of the birthdays of the students. The curriculum is designed for children who turn five before 30 September. The "name of the year," for example, 2006 vs. 2007, doesn't matter, just that all the students have already turned five. A child born in December of 2006 is not that different from a child born in January of 2007.
The schools have simply decided to start the twelve month year on 1 October and end it on 30 September. Same time span as 1 January to 31 December, correct?

[Anonymous]

I wish FCPS would allow 1-2 months or so in either direction to either hold children back or let them test in a year earlier. It makes sense and would get rid of a lot of redshirting discussion too if those redshirted children were held to a smaller window.

[Anonymous]

They actually did do that back in the late 80's when they were switching from the December 31st cutoff to September 30. Those kids all graduated from high school by 04 or 05. Any teachers out there with opinions on how that worked out in the class room?

[Anonymous]

January kids would fall within their birth year.

What does that even mean??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

January kids would fall within their birth year.

What does that even mean??

It means the PP wants all children in the same calendar year to go to school together. I am guessing the next request will be for school to start in January so there will be no more of these silly August or September starts to the school year.

[Anonymous]

It means the PP wants all children in the same calendar year to go to school together. I am guessing the next request will be for school to start in January so there will be no more of these silly August or September starts to the school year.

I think you're right that that's what she means, but it makes no sense.

In my previous posts I was simply trying to say that a year can be any 12-month period and it really doesn't make any difference which 12-month period you pick. "All the kids born in 2007" is not inherently better or worse than "all the kids born from October 1 2006 to September 30 2007." But apparently some people think there is something magical about the calendar year as opposed to a September-to-September year??

[Anonymous]

WTF am I missing? A December bday will be one of the older ones.

I have September and April boys. I sure as h*ll wouldn't worry if they were December bdays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

It means the PP wants all children in the same calendar year to go to school together. I am guessing the next request will be for school to start in January so there will be no more of these silly August or September starts to the school year.

I think you're right that that's what she means, but it makes no sense.

But why would you want to use logic here?

[Anonymous]

WTF am I missing? A December bday will be one of the older ones.

I have September and April boys. I sure as h*ll wouldn't worry if they were December bdays.

My best interpretation of OP's concern is that she thinks because her child has a December birthday, that means her child is being forced to start school "a year later" because kids born through Sept. 30th of whatever calendar year her kid was born in will have started school the year before. I guess she (and others on this thread?) think that all kids born in the same calendar year should go to school together (even though the Sept. cutoff still constitutes a 12-month age span for kids in each grade).

OP seems concerned that because her kid is, in her view, being "kept back" from starting school with kids born through Sept. 30th of the same calendar year, her child is going to be more advanced than all the other kids in the class and therefore will be bored when she enters kindergarten.

However, by OP's logic, we would use a Dec. 31 cutoff, and then her kid would be the youngest in the class & I assume she'd have concerns about that as well.

The weirdest thing about this is that December is probably not too far from the middle of the age cohort in most cases. Even assuming this kid's birthday is Dec 1 and not Dec 31, there are all the October & November kids turning 6 before this kid, and in most cases there will be several redshirted August & September birthdays too, sometimes even some Julys. There will be kids in the class who are at least 3 months older, if not more, than this child. So a December kid is never going to be the oldest kid in the class & certainly is not going to be advanced beyond all the other kids by virtue of age alone.

[Anonymous]

As for public school, I'd say Dec/Jan birthdays are the best. There is no disadvantage. Sounds like OP is getting some unfortunate information from a friend.