How to get your post-August born child into an older class year?

[Anonymous]

For parents who have kids who were born post-August and would like their child to be enrolled in an "older" class year, what do you need to do to get an exception through the system?

DS is an early November baby and have been at a daycare for the last two years. He is relatively big for his age. Overall gravitates towards older kids and prefers to "play" with them. We have been looking to send him to pre-school. Unfortunately, the few that I have called have notified us that they follow the school cut-off rule. Therefore DS will not be able to enter the 3's classroom until he is nearly 4 years old. Is there a way to get an exception so that your kids are enrolled a year in advance? Is there a montessori school that would have this exception, or do they all follow this strict September cut-off placement guideline?

TIA.

[Anonymous]

Look at some other schools. I also had this concern and was excited to find a few preschools that had classes for "older 3s". His class had children with birthdays between June and December. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

We didn't have a problem finding an "older" class until our child was approaching kindergarten and then found the schools to be inflexible.

[Anonymous]

Just something for you to think about....

If you push to have your child in with the older kids, what are you going to do the year that your child turns 5? Will he repeat the same class? Will you move him to another program? Public school is pretty inflexible on cut-off dates, private independent schools are more than likely going to say he is not ready for K, Catholic Schools might work with you.

Also, there are significant developmental differences between years at this age.

My observation of my son's pre-school of the kids playing on the playground is that the class that a child is in does not determine who they are playing with on the playground - so if your child gravitates to the older kids, this will happen naturally.

[Anonymous]

November is tough. There are some Montessori schools that may use Dec 31st as a cutoff but it tends to be case by case basis and child has to be 3 and potty-trained to start. No guarantee that public school will accept child into 1st instead of repeating kindergarten (Montessori typically goes thru K) but there is a chance your child can test into 1st grade per how my school system works. You can also look around for a private school that will use a later cutoff for kindergarten. Extremely rare but my friend found one in VA close to where she lives for her October son. Even so she had issues with the preschool (different place than where she will send him for K), putting him in the older classroom from the start. They started him in the younger classroom and moved him to the older one (where he is doing better) due to some other issues.

There may be a little more flexible with daycares but I think with DC and MD moving up the cutoffs over the past few yearsthe daycares are gradually phasing in the same cutoffs into their classrooms. Some kind of way my oldest daughter's daycare didn't have her with the younger kids - so when she was turning 3 in Nov, she was in the preschool classroom with the kids that were 3 instead of being with the 2s. She did well and my issue bringing her close to home presented a problem because everyone wanted her to be with the 3s when she was turning 4 in November. I had three options - a school that had enough classrooms for the older 3 and younger 3. She would still be in a 3 year old classroom, but the classroom would have other late birthdays i.e. Oct/Nov/Dec., a school with a Pre-K Plus program so when the other kids went off to kindergarten she would be in a class of kids that all missed the cutoff or needed another year - so she wouldn't be repeating the same material, or a Montessori with a later cutoff.

[Anonymous]

Considr a school like Little Folks that has mixed-age classrooms.

[Anonymous]

My fall-birthday boys both started in "older-twos" classes - they started mid-year. The kids had late summer and fall birthdays. An added advantage was that most of the kids stayed on, as a class, for the year they turned five, so the preschool programmed some pre-K activities into their play-based curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Have you found any mixed-aged classes to look into?

[Anonymous]

Are you in DC? There are a handful of charter schools are flexible with birthday cut-offs at the Pre-K level. Once you get a child into one of them most regular schools will accept them at the stated grade.

In other words, you start your child at the charter for PS & PK4 and most schools will accept them the following year as a Kindergartener because they've had 2 years of official public school and are ready for K.

Both Bridges and Potomac Lighthouse will take children on the early side.

[Anonymous]

I was told by the principal at my DC public school that their books are audited for birthdays, at least in pre-K and Kindergarten. That is, the principal had no discretion even if she thought a child might be ready for K if the child's birthday is past the cut-off. I cannot see how spending 2 years in charter preschool is going to change this. If a charter accepts your child at the level you want however and you are happy with the charter, keep your child there for K, first and beyond.

I also have a November child that is more than ready to start kindergarten in the fall and cannot. The things I consider that make it okay (at least for now) are that (1) there are many late fall birthdays, your child will not be the only one, (2) while my child may be ready now, I do not want her being the youngest girl in her class in middle school for social reasons, (3) If you were to push your son into Kindergarten at almost five, it is likely there will be other boys in his class that are 15-18 months older than him because of the prevalence of red shirting, and (4) I hear kindergarten is the new first grade.

I would suggest finding a preschool that is mixed age or otherwise exposes your child to older children. I think it is a bad idea to keep a preschooler with kids that are close to a year younger, the developmental gaps are just too huge that young and the older kids start acting out because they are frustrated by the younger kids.

[Anonymous]

The answer is . . . you shouldn't want to. In fact you should be thrilled with the November birthday beacause a huge percentage of moms with boys burn from June-August will ultimately decide to hold their son back a year. My son is October and his sister is wrapping up K in Montgomery County. His "old twos" class was perfect for him. All his classmates were within a couple of months of his age. Next year, I'm sure the mix with some old 3s and some younger will be fine for him. Having lived through kindergarden and watched a neigbor's son struggle as the "youngest" in my daughter's class, I am sooo happy with his October birthday.

The principal at our school flat out says K is now "first grade." There is very little play time (if any). Lot's of worksheets and emphasis on reading (the kids know who the "slow readers" are). Why would you want to through your five year old into that a year early? More time playing and learning from his environment and then being one of the oldest in K is sooo much better.

All this said, I will admit that when my daughter was younger--she was an very early talker and I thought she should be with the older kids all the time. It's natural to want them to be challenged and learn from their peers. But the pre-school teachers know what their doing. If your son is really much more mature than his peers, he'll become a leader--which is great.

[Anonymous]

We were in the same situation. Our DS is a December baby, & we didn't want to wait until he was almost 4 to join a 3 year olds class. I'm not sure if you're looking at private, but we've just enrolled at the British School of Washington. We recently toured, & loved it. They have a rolling enrollment, so as soon as your DS turns 3, he can start school, with no waiting until the next school year. It's worth checking out. It's not a much talked about school on this board, but we were VERY impressed.

[Anonymous]

This is the kind of thing I am thinking about now. My DS has a late September bday so would make the cutoff date for Fairfax schools but I don't want him to be the youngest in the class esp. as a boy. My brother, who was an August bday, was the youngest in his class and he said he hated it and so much so that he repeated a grade when he switched to a prep school and he was so much happier. My mom reminded me of this when I had my son because she said she choose to send him to school a little early because he was big and mature for that time and didn't realize the effect. Sooo beyond giving OP some perspectve, I am wondering what do parents do who want their kid to not be the youngest but want to keep them involved with kids. Do you start out at one preschool and then switch so they aren't doing two years at the same school?

[Anonymous]

I suggest looking for an older 3s class. My son is in a preschool with this. I have 2 boys - one born in October who just misses the cut-off and the other born in early November. Quite honestly, I think you probably shouldn't push to get into an older class b/c of the reason a PP stated - what are you going to do when everybody else in your DC's class moves on the kindergarten and your DC can't? Perhaps you have other plans, but really - there is no rush.

I'm actually very glad my boys have an extra year (without redshirting) b/c I feel like it is good for them...

[Anonymous]

Try the Montessori schools. You may have to wait until Jafter the December/January when he has already turned 3 but the classrooms are a mix of kids at 3,4, and 5. You could also ask to start in a 2s room in September and transfer into an older room in January. They prefer to not transfer kids around as haphazrdly as some of the daycare rooms but I know they made an exception cases similar to yours. He would need to be potty trained to be in the older room.

The other option is to look at daycares with preschool program. If they have an unfilled spot in a room they tend to take a fill it first, balance the class ages second approach. The preschools fill up but the daycares for older kids can have more spots open if you are in the burbs.