Exceptions to the Prek3 Sept 30 cut off date?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

I toured a ton of schools (nearly 20... yes, it was like a second full-time job) looking at PK programs last year and this is not how schools tend to use combined PK3/4 classes*. All of the DCPS schools I toured that have a combined PK3/PK4 class (usually it's just one class per school and the other PK3s and 4s are separate) see it as a class for older PK3s and PK4s who are younger, need a little more time to learn some of the PK3 skills, and/or new to the school and coming from a program that may not have taught some of the PK3 academic skills (e.g., structured phonics lessons). So a kid who is old for their grade level might be placed in the mixed class for their PK3 year, but wouldn't remain in that class for PK4 unless they were struggling in some way.

*yes, there are a few exceptions at charters, but I found no exceptions at DCPS schools I visited

I can tell you Miner is an exception then. Kids do 2 years in the PK3/4 classroom there.

Miner is not PK 3/4 mixed age. They may spend 2 years with the same teacher but that is NOT mixed age.

My kid is literally in the mixed PK3/PK4 class at Miner. Why do people confidently assert things when they have no idea?

Not that hard for you to lie. Especially when their website doesn’t state they have mixed age, unlike Brent.

Not all schools put everything on their website.

I'm another Hill family and I know JO Wilson also has or had a mixed 3/4s classroom and that kids spent two years in it, because we have a neighbor whose daughter spent two years in that classroom. I don't think JO has anything about that on their website and I was totally unaware of it until she told me (in a conversation where I was expressly interested in a mixed-age classroom).

I don't know why you would assume you know everything there is to know about a school you don't have a kid at.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think there are any anymore. There used to be a few. I looked pretty hard in 2015 because I had the same thing, early October birthday girl who is in some ways advanced.

You could try the community-based organizations, I'm not sure how it works but maybe you could go for free after her birthday. https://www.myschooldc.org/find-schools/school-options-outside-my-school-dc

I'm sure you'll hear this from a lot of people, but it turned out that my daughter's age-rule placement was the right place for her socially. While she seemed to have good social skills in terms of speech and being generally a calm and cooperative kid, her social skills in upper elementary were lagging and she would have been miserable in the grade above. It can be such a good thing to be one of the older kids. And looking back, it seemed like a lot of money but it wasn't worth giving up an entire year of her childhood at home with us. Life comes at you fast!

CBOs also have no exceptions. OSSE is very strict about this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

I toured a ton of schools (nearly 20... yes, it was like a second full-time job) looking at PK programs last year and this is not how schools tend to use combined PK3/4 classes*. All of the DCPS schools I toured that have a combined PK3/PK4 class (usually it's just one class per school and the other PK3s and 4s are separate) see it as a class for older PK3s and PK4s who are younger, need a little more time to learn some of the PK3 skills, and/or new to the school and coming from a program that may not have taught some of the PK3 academic skills (e.g., structured phonics lessons). So a kid who is old for their grade level might be placed in the mixed class for their PK3 year, but wouldn't remain in that class for PK4 unless they were struggling in some way.

*yes, there are a few exceptions at charters, but I found no exceptions at DCPS schools I visited

I can tell you Miner is an exception then. Kids do 2 years in the PK3/4 classroom there.

Miner is not PK 3/4 mixed age. They may spend 2 years with the same teacher but that is NOT mixed age.

My kid is literally in the mixed PK3/PK4 class at Miner. Why do people confidently assert things when they have no idea?

Not that hard for you to lie. Especially when their website doesn’t state they have mixed age, unlike Brent.

Not all schools put everything on their website.

I'm another Hill family and I know JO Wilson also has or had a mixed 3/4s classroom and that kids spent two years in it, because we have a neighbor whose daughter spent two years in that classroom. I don't think JO has anything about that on their website and I was totally unaware of it until she told me (in a conversation where I was expressly interested in a mixed-age classroom).

I don't know why you would assume you know everything there is to know about a school you don't have a kid at.

Because I am a DCPS’s staff member. Easy. And I’m have a friend who works there. They had a staff member quit and they took her off the page but sure they don’t update it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

I toured a ton of schools (nearly 20... yes, it was like a second full-time job) looking at PK programs last year and this is not how schools tend to use combined PK3/4 classes*. All of the DCPS schools I toured that have a combined PK3/PK4 class (usually it's just one class per school and the other PK3s and 4s are separate) see it as a class for older PK3s and PK4s who are younger, need a little more time to learn some of the PK3 skills, and/or new to the school and coming from a program that may not have taught some of the PK3 academic skills (e.g., structured phonics lessons). So a kid who is old for their grade level might be placed in the mixed class for their PK3 year, but wouldn't remain in that class for PK4 unless they were struggling in some way.

*yes, there are a few exceptions at charters, but I found no exceptions at DCPS schools I visited

I can tell you Miner is an exception then. Kids do 2 years in the PK3/4 classroom there.

Miner is not PK 3/4 mixed age. They may spend 2 years with the same teacher but that is NOT mixed age.

My kid is literally in the mixed PK3/PK4 class at Miner. Why do people confidently assert things when they have no idea?

Not that hard for you to lie. Especially when their website doesn’t state they have mixed age, unlike Brent.

Not all schools put everything on their website.

I'm another Hill family and I know JO Wilson also has or had a mixed 3/4s classroom and that kids spent two years in it, because we have a neighbor whose daughter spent two years in that classroom. I don't think JO has anything about that on their website and I was totally unaware of it until she told me (in a conversation where I was expressly interested in a mixed-age classroom).

I don't know why you would assume you know everything there is to know about a school you don't have a kid at.

Because I am a DCPS’s staff member. Easy. And I’m have a friend who works there. They had a staff member quit and they took her off the page but sure they don’t update it.

A friend who works where? Miner? Brent? JOW? The staff member who quite was a teacher in a 3/4s room? The school used to have a 3/4s room but doesn't now?

If you have insider info, share it in a way that is actually helpful. Otherwise I don't care where you work or who you know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

I toured a ton of schools (nearly 20... yes, it was like a second full-time job) looking at PK programs last year and this is not how schools tend to use combined PK3/4 classes*. All of the DCPS schools I toured that have a combined PK3/PK4 class (usually it's just one class per school and the other PK3s and 4s are separate) see it as a class for older PK3s and PK4s who are younger, need a little more time to learn some of the PK3 skills, and/or new to the school and coming from a program that may not have taught some of the PK3 academic skills (e.g., structured phonics lessons). So a kid who is old for their grade level might be placed in the mixed class for their PK3 year, but wouldn't remain in that class for PK4 unless they were struggling in some way.

*yes, there are a few exceptions at charters, but I found no exceptions at DCPS schools I visited

I can tell you Miner is an exception then. Kids do 2 years in the PK3/4 classroom there.

Miner is not PK 3/4 mixed age. They may spend 2 years with the same teacher but that is NOT mixed age.

Miner had a mixed age 3/4 class at least one year ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

I toured a ton of schools (nearly 20... yes, it was like a second full-time job) looking at PK programs last year and this is not how schools tend to use combined PK3/4 classes*. All of the DCPS schools I toured that have a combined PK3/PK4 class (usually it's just one class per school and the other PK3s and 4s are separate) see it as a class for older PK3s and PK4s who are younger, need a little more time to learn some of the PK3 skills, and/or new to the school and coming from a program that may not have taught some of the PK3 academic skills (e.g., structured phonics lessons). So a kid who is old for their grade level might be placed in the mixed class for their PK3 year, but wouldn't remain in that class for PK4 unless they were struggling in some way.

*yes, there are a few exceptions at charters, but I found no exceptions at DCPS schools I visited

I can tell you Miner is an exception then. Kids do 2 years in the PK3/4 classroom there.

Miner is not PK 3/4 mixed age. They may spend 2 years with the same teacher but that is NOT mixed age.

My kid is literally in the mixed PK3/PK4 class at Miner. Why do people confidently assert things when they have no idea?

Not that hard for you to lie. Especially when their website doesn’t state they have mixed age, unlike Brent.

Have you lost your mind? Why would PP be lying about her child being in a PK3/4 class at Miner? She’s not complimenting or insulting the program, she’s literally just saying that it exists and kids spend 2 years in it. Another poster also said it existed. Anyway, my DD was in that class a few years ago and the teachers were Ms Jones and Ms Loving, in case that helps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

I toured a ton of schools (nearly 20... yes, it was like a second full-time job) looking at PK programs last year and this is not how schools tend to use combined PK3/4 classes*. All of the DCPS schools I toured that have a combined PK3/PK4 class (usually it's just one class per school and the other PK3s and 4s are separate) see it as a class for older PK3s and PK4s who are younger, need a little more time to learn some of the PK3 skills, and/or new to the school and coming from a program that may not have taught some of the PK3 academic skills (e.g., structured phonics lessons). So a kid who is old for their grade level might be placed in the mixed class for their PK3 year, but wouldn't remain in that class for PK4 unless they were struggling in some way.

*yes, there are a few exceptions at charters, but I found no exceptions at DCPS schools I visited

I can tell you Miner is an exception then. Kids do 2 years in the PK3/4 classroom there.

Miner is not PK 3/4 mixed age. They may spend 2 years with the same teacher but that is NOT mixed age.

My kid is literally in the mixed PK3/PK4 class at Miner. Why do people confidently assert things when they have no idea?

Not that hard for you to lie. Especially when their website doesn’t state they have mixed age, unlike Brent.

Have you lost your mind? Why would PP be lying about her child being in a PK3/4 class at Miner? She’s not complimenting or insulting the program, she’s literally just saying that it exists and kids spend 2 years in it. Another poster also said it existed. Anyway, my DD was in that class a few years ago and the teachers were Ms Jones and Ms Loving, in case that helps.

There is a new principal…goodness I’m not sure what’s hard for some to get. It doesn’t matter if there were mixed ages last year. There isn’t now. Mixed age is something the principal decides.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

I toured a ton of schools (nearly 20... yes, it was like a second full-time job) looking at PK programs last year and this is not how schools tend to use combined PK3/4 classes*. All of the DCPS schools I toured that have a combined PK3/PK4 class (usually it's just one class per school and the other PK3s and 4s are separate) see it as a class for older PK3s and PK4s who are younger, need a little more time to learn some of the PK3 skills, and/or new to the school and coming from a program that may not have taught some of the PK3 academic skills (e.g., structured phonics lessons). So a kid who is old for their grade level might be placed in the mixed class for their PK3 year, but wouldn't remain in that class for PK4 unless they were struggling in some way.

*yes, there are a few exceptions at charters, but I found no exceptions at DCPS schools I visited

I can tell you Miner is an exception then. Kids do 2 years in the PK3/4 classroom there.

Miner is not PK 3/4 mixed age. They may spend 2 years with the same teacher but that is NOT mixed age.

My kid is literally in the mixed PK3/PK4 class at Miner. Why do people confidently assert things when they have no idea?

Not that hard for you to lie. Especially when their website doesn’t state they have mixed age, unlike Brent.

Have you lost your mind? Why would PP be lying about her child being in a PK3/4 class at Miner? She’s not complimenting or insulting the program, she’s literally just saying that it exists and kids spend 2 years in it. Another poster also said it existed. Anyway, my DD was in that class a few years ago and the teachers were Ms Jones and Ms Loving, in case that helps.

There is a new principal…goodness I’m not sure what’s hard for some to get. It doesn’t matter if there were mixed ages last year. There isn’t now. Mixed age is something the principal decides.

Actually at an early action school, it’s largely driven by numbers given the required ratios.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

I toured a ton of schools (nearly 20... yes, it was like a second full-time job) looking at PK programs last year and this is not how schools tend to use combined PK3/4 classes*. All of the DCPS schools I toured that have a combined PK3/PK4 class (usually it's just one class per school and the other PK3s and 4s are separate) see it as a class for older PK3s and PK4s who are younger, need a little more time to learn some of the PK3 skills, and/or new to the school and coming from a program that may not have taught some of the PK3 academic skills (e.g., structured phonics lessons). So a kid who is old for their grade level might be placed in the mixed class for their PK3 year, but wouldn't remain in that class for PK4 unless they were struggling in some way.

*yes, there are a few exceptions at charters, but I found no exceptions at DCPS schools I visited

I can tell you Miner is an exception then. Kids do 2 years in the PK3/4 classroom there.

Miner is not PK 3/4 mixed age. They may spend 2 years with the same teacher but that is NOT mixed age.

My kid is literally in the mixed PK3/PK4 class at Miner. Why do people confidently assert things when they have no idea?

Not that hard for you to lie. Especially when their website doesn’t state they have mixed age, unlike Brent.

Have you lost your mind? Why would PP be lying about her child being in a PK3/4 class at Miner? She’s not complimenting or insulting the program, she’s literally just saying that it exists and kids spend 2 years in it. Another poster also said it existed. Anyway, my DD was in that class a few years ago and the teachers were Ms Jones and Ms Loving, in case that helps.

There is a new principal…goodness I’m not sure what’s hard for some to get. It doesn’t matter if there were mixed ages last year. There isn’t now. Mixed age is something the principal decides.

Actually at an early action school, it’s largely driven by numbers given the required ratios.

This.

[Anonymous]

Our kid missed the cut off date too and is quite verbally advanced for her age. We looked for a school with a combined 3/4 preK program and it is working well this year. She plays with all the four year olds and is grouped with them for certain activities.

The downside to this is that the 4 year olds will move to K next year and if there are no precocious 3 year old next year we’re kind of SOL. We’re looking to privates and hoping for aid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our kid missed the cut off date too and is quite verbally advanced for her age. We looked for a school with a combined 3/4 preK program and it is working well this year. She plays with all the four year olds and is grouped with them for certain activities.

The downside to this is that the 4 year olds will move to K next year and if there are no precocious 3 year old next year we’re kind of SOL. We’re looking to privates and hoping for aid.

Why not just let her repeat preK4? I personally wouldn’t be in a rush to have one less year with my child…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our kid missed the cut off date too and is quite verbally advanced for her age. We looked for a school with a combined 3/4 preK program and it is working well this year. She plays with all the four year olds and is grouped with them for certain activities.

The downside to this is that the 4 year olds will move to K next year and if there are no precocious 3 year old next year we’re kind of SOL. We’re looking to privates and hoping for aid.

It sucks to have your kid learn leadership skills and to play and learn with people different from them?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everyone piling on OP needs to check themselves. The magic birthday cutoff used to be Dec. 31 not all that long ago, recently enough that there are students still in the DCPS system who enrolled before the change - and it still is in plenty of places, like New York City. It was moved up pretty recently because - can we be real about this? - raising the average age in each class a few years ago goosed test scores, making schools look like their students were getting smarter and better educated (as opposed to just, you know - older on average than they used to be, with the smartest and most advanced students most likely to be affected.) There's nothing magic about the new cutoff that makes it holy writ that should not be questioned.

My daughter is a senior and started DCPS when the cutoff was September 30. So it can't have changed that recently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our kid missed the cut off date too and is quite verbally advanced for her age. We looked for a school with a combined 3/4 preK program and it is working well this year. She plays with all the four year olds and is grouped with them for certain activities.

The downside to this is that the 4 year olds will move to K next year and if there are no precocious 3 year old next year we’re kind of SOL. We’re looking to privates and hoping for aid.

Why not just let her repeat preK4? I personally wouldn’t be in a rush to have one less year with my child…

DCPS will only pay for 13 years (K-12) and if you lottery, 2 years of prek. They will not pay for additional school years unless there is a reason beyond parent preference. The way OP could do this is to send their child to a private prek3 program next year, and then lottery for prek4 the following year. Because the child will be "too old" for prek4 and prek4 isn't a required grade, then it will be up to the individual school whether or not the child can be in prek4. Another option is to send this child to prek3 and prek4 in private (repeating their prek3 year), and then in two years go to K. Because K is a required grade, DCPS will not force that child to go to 1st grade. Either way, OP will need to pay for a least a year of private. I have a child with an end of September birthday. We did DCPS Prek3, DCPS prek4, and then had her repeat a prek year at private before going on to K in private. She continued at that private and is now in 2nd grade and we plan to keep her in private. She was born 1 day before the cutoff and DCPS would not budge. I get it - it ensures that at least all the kids are within a year of each other. At my child's private school now, the 2nd grade class includes kids who turned 8 beginning end of May (all boys), as wells as kids who will turn 8 next summer (mostly girls). It's a 16 months spread which I imagine is harder for teachers.