Do most preschools have hard rules about age for entrance?

[Anonymous]

Like public schools do? My kid has an early Sept birthday and I was assuming that he would go to preschool the year he turned two (he would still be 1 year +346 days when he started). In looking around at some preschool websites I found one that explicitly stated that the kid had to be 2 on Sept 1 to be eligible for the twos class per MSDE rules. Does anyone know if these rules apply to all preschools or why this is not an issue at other places?

[Anonymous]

Licensing rules change dramatically when kids hit 2, for example, in MD you need 1 teacher for every 3 kids at 1, and 1 for every 6 kids at 2. You also can't have any stairs between the door of the classroom and the outside if you have kids under 2. All of these rules go by the age of the youngest kid in the room.

If a preschool starts at 2, they aren't going to meet the licensing criteria for under 2, so even if he/she's 1 year 364 days they won't take them. However some schools will let a kid start late, while other schools who have enough applicants to fill all their spaces won't bother with that.

The other issue, is that many schools like to move their kids through as a cohort. So, they like all the kids in their 4's class to be eligible for Kindergarten the following year. If your child starts at 2, they'll need 4 years of preschool, while their classmates will leave after 3. This can get complicated, and some schools don't want to deal with it.

[Anonymous]

In VA it's 9/30.

[Anonymous]

In DC it is 9/30. So you might look at the ones in the District.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Licensing rules change dramatically when kids hit 2, for example, in MD you need 1 teacher for every 3 kids at 1, and 1 for every 6 kids at 2. You also can't have any stairs between the door of the classroom and the outside if you have kids under 2. All of these rules go by the age of the youngest kid in the room.

If a preschool starts at 2, they aren't going to meet the licensing criteria for under 2, so even if he/she's 1 year 364 days they won't take them. However some schools will let a kid start late, while other schools who have enough applicants to fill all their spaces won't bother with that.

The other issue, is that many schools like to move their kids through as a cohort. So, they like all the kids in their 4's class to be eligible for Kindergarten the following year. If your child starts at 2, they'll need 4 years of preschool, while their classmates will leave after 3. This can get complicated, and some schools don't want to deal with it.

This is OP. I was already planning the DC would take the early entrance test for K. Four years of preschool would totally suck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Licensing rules change dramatically when kids hit 2, for example, in MD you need 1 teacher for every 3 kids at 1, and 1 for every 6 kids at 2. You also can't have any stairs between the door of the classroom and the outside if you have kids under 2. All of these rules go by the age of the youngest kid in the room.

If a preschool starts at 2, they aren't going to meet the licensing criteria for under 2, so even if he/she's 1 year 364 days they won't take them. However some schools will let a kid start late, while other schools who have enough applicants to fill all their spaces won't bother with that.

The other issue, is that many schools like to move their kids through as a cohort. So, they like all the kids in their 4's class to be eligible for Kindergarten the following year. If your child starts at 2, they'll need 4 years of preschool, while their classmates will leave after 3. This can get complicated, and some schools don't want to deal with it.

This is OP. I was already planning the DC would take the early entrance test for K. Four years of preschool would totally suck.

There's no way you can tell with a 1 year old that they're going to be one of the very few kids for whom early entrance is a good idea. Why would you set your kid up like that?

[Anonymous]

Not all schools have set rules. DD has a birthday a couple of days after the cutoff in VA. Our preschool told us they would try her in one room and move her to the other once she started if it was a better fit. At that age it also depended the ages of the others in the class. She would be with almost 3 year olds or children that just learned to walk, depending which class is best.

[Anonymous]

Most schools do have set rules, but some will accommodate for good reasons. My kid was in the 2s class in a MoCo school last year and had one kid with a late September birthday in the class. The cut-off date was supposed to be Sept 1, but they made an exception in part because the family lives in DC and thus will be on the Sept 30 cut-off date for the kid's public school experience later. They felt it was appropriate to have him with the older cohort like he will be when he goes to kindergarten.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Licensing rules change dramatically when kids hit 2, for example, in MD you need 1 teacher for every 3 kids at 1, and 1 for every 6 kids at 2. You also can't have any stairs between the door of the classroom and the outside if you have kids under 2. All of these rules go by the age of the youngest kid in the room.

If a preschool starts at 2, they aren't going to meet the licensing criteria for under 2, so even if he/she's 1 year 364 days they won't take them. However some schools will let a kid start late, while other schools who have enough applicants to fill all their spaces won't bother with that.

The other issue, is that many schools like to move their kids through as a cohort. So, they like all the kids in their 4's class to be eligible for Kindergarten the following year. If your child starts at 2, they'll need 4 years of preschool, while their classmates will leave after 3. This can get complicated, and some schools don't want to deal with it.

This is OP. I was already planning the DC would take the early entrance test for K. Four years of preschool would totally suck.

There's no way you can tell with a 1 year old that they're going to be one of the very few kids for whom early entrance is a good idea. Why would you set your kid up like that?

It's a difference of nine days, so insignificant.

[Anonymous]

Most preschools start at 2.5, not 2, so I'm surprised you're even finding a place where you could try to negotiate this.

I do sympathize though - we'll have my oldest DD start KG when she's not 5, rather than having her to an extra year of preschool. Her preschool is part of a preK-8th private, and for the first preschool class, you need to be 3 by the end of the calendar year. So she started when she was 2 (almost 3) for 1st year of preschool, is starting the 2nd year of preschool at 3 (almost 4), and then will enter KG when 4 (almost 5). We still have the option of her just doing a 3rd year of preschool if something dramatically changes and the teachers feel she's not ready - but seems rather unlikely.

I'd look for a private with a Dec 31st cutoff.

[Anonymous]

All of the preschools we looked at required DS to be 2.5 by September. There are two preschools we looked at (Aidan and River) that also offer a toddler morning program but not classified as part of the preschool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Licensing rules change dramatically when kids hit 2, for example, in MD you need 1 teacher for every 3 kids at 1, and 1 for every 6 kids at 2. You also can't have any stairs between the door of the classroom and the outside if you have kids under 2. All of these rules go by the age of the youngest kid in the room.

If a preschool starts at 2, they aren't going to meet the licensing criteria for under 2, so even if he/she's 1 year 364 days they won't take them. However some schools will let a kid start late, while other schools who have enough applicants to fill all their spaces won't bother with that.

The other issue, is that many schools like to move their kids through as a cohort. So, they like all the kids in their 4's class to be eligible for Kindergarten the following year. If your child starts at 2, they'll need 4 years of preschool, while their classmates will leave after 3. This can get complicated, and some schools don't want to deal with it.

This is OP. I was already planning the DC would take the early entrance test for K. Four years of preschool would totally suck.

There's no way you can tell with a 1 year old that they're going to be one of the very few kids for whom early entrance is a good idea. Why would you set your kid up like that?

It's a difference of nine days, so insignificant.

It's a difference of nine days, but nine days from being the very youngest child in the class if he started on time. Especially in the era of redshirting, that child could be 18 months two nearly 2 years younger than some of his classmates, and so would need to be an exceptionally mature and well-prepared child to function well in a classroom like that. Early entrance is meant for those exceptionally mature and well-prepared children, not for every kid who just misses the cut-off.

[Anonymous]

As a PP said, sometimes you can "buy" the spot and pay tuition until your child is old enough to begin, but not every school wants to deal with that, plus any issues that come from the child being the youngest in the classroom.

My youngest will be 2.5 and a day when he starts preschool in the fall, and the school wanted to do an interview with us and to meet him before they agreed to give him a spot. Even though he was over the technical age limit, they had some concerns that he would struggle because he was actually young by the standards of the classroom. He did fine, and has been potty trained for ages, so he's starting, but I mention it because he met the cut off and they still worried he could be a little young.

[Anonymous]

It's so frustrating that places have a 2.5-year-old cut-off by September. My kid has a spring birthday and misses this by about a month, yet he'll be in the regular class with these kids when he gets to be older because all public schools have a year cut-off, not a half-year age cut-off (i.e. 5 in Sept, not 5.5). These other kids get to do a full year of preschool and then my kid is supposed to start a year later, when they are already used to being in that school, and there are fewer available spots because those kids already took them. This doesn't seem right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most preschools start at 2.5, not 2, so I'm surprised you're even finding a place where you could try to negotiate this.

I do sympathize though - we'll have my oldest DD start KG when she's not 5, rather than having her to an extra year of preschool. Her preschool is part of a preK-8th private, and for the first preschool class, you need to be 3 by the end of the calendar year. So she started when she was 2 (almost 3) for 1st year of preschool, is starting the 2nd year of preschool at 3 (almost 4), and then will enter KG when 4 (almost 5). We still have the option of her just doing a 3rd year of preschool if something dramatically changes and the teachers feel she's not ready - but seems rather unlikely.

I'd look for a private with a Dec 31st cutoff.

NP. Would you mind sharing the name of your private? We're in the same position but having trouble finding a private with a cutoff of Dec. 31st.