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.

You'll be upset about it for a bit just because you probably know parents with kids born in August or September and are jealous they are done with daycare for their 3 year old.

But after the initial frustration, you will suck it up and pay for childcare and then you will realize it's nice not to worry about your kid being the youngest and having more time is a gift (even if she seems developmentally advanced now -- she's really too young for you to know how she will do socially or academically).

I say this as someone on the other side, with a kid with a September birthday. But we actually got screwed by Covid -- the year our kid would have qualified for PK3, the schools were closed (they did do "virtual PK" and let me tell you, that is quite possible the dumbest thing DCPS did during Covid -- it would have been more effective to distribute books about early childhood education and bottles of Xanax). We wound up getting DD into a part-time in-person private preschool in the spring. But you know what? When she started PK4 the following fall, I was glad she got the reprieve. DCPS PK is awesome but it's a long day for the youngest kids and it's a lot busier and more active than most daycares or time with nannies. It turned out it was the best thing for her even though it was a bummer for us financially.

Anonymous wrote:Hi,
we live in DC and our daughter will turn 3 on October 20th. Has anyone heard of any PreK-3 programs with a later cut off date than September 30th, or any exceptions which would enable us to register her in DC for the 2025/26 year. She is very advanced developmentally and we would love to not pay an extra year of daycare...
Thanks!

There are no exceptions to the cutoff date in DCPS that would enable you to register her early. Even if your child was born on October 1.

This. It's fine. Also, OP, there can be older kids in the grade if they move here from a place with a different age rule or a place that is more redshirting-friendly. In DCPS a kid must be 5 by Sept 30 to start Kindergarten. But if someone moved here from another state or country with a different rule, or a private school with different rules, they could definitely be older. DCPS will not force them to skip a grade just to be with their age-peers. So you will see as time goes on, that there will be older kids and it's not because they all repeated a grade. It's just from people moving and changing schools.

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.

Anonymous wrote:no. I looked into it for an October 2 birthday. Bethune used to do it but not anymore.

If the child qualifies for special ed they can go as soon as they turn 3 (joining a class mid-year) but if that applied to you you'd probably already know about it.

This. My 15yo was in one of the last classes at Bethune to accept late bdays.

Anonymous wrote:I have a middle school kid with a September birthday that was super advanced in prek but is now struggling. My gut told me then to hold her back then and I wish we had. Also, you will never regret having your child around longer.

My September birthday child struggled early on but later years is doing great. It can go either way regardless of age.

Anonymous wrote:I have a middle school kid with a September birthday that was super advanced in prek but is now struggling. My gut told me then to hold her back then and I wish we had. Also, you will never regret having your child around longer.

OP doesn’t like her 2 year old enough to pay for age appropriate care, what makes you think she’ll want her around when she’s 17?

I have a middle school kid with a September birthday that was super advanced in prek but is now struggling. My gut told me then to hold her back then and I wish we had. Also, you will never regret having your child around longer.

And even back then, OP, here's a key point to which I was oblivious to at the time. Back when it was allowed, schools only did this if they were having a hard time filling up their class with right-age students! It's a red flag for school quality.

no. I looked into it for an October 2 birthday. Bethune used to do it but not anymore.

If the child qualifies for special ed they can go as soon as they turn 3 (joining a class mid-year) but if that applied to you you'd probably already know about it.

No. Absolutely no exceptions. Don’t you think everyone in your position wants free childcare early?

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!

Hahahaha! No. The “advanced developmentally” really was the nail in the coffin.

You cannot receive an exception, legally. You definitely won’t get one now, on principle.

“But my potty-trained 2 year old can sing the ABCs and count to 100!”

Be thankful you have free PK the year after. Unless you voted for Trump and then, goodbye to universal preschool for ever.

Hi,
we live in DC and our daughter will turn 3 on October 20th. Has anyone heard of any PreK-3 programs with a later cut off date than September 30th, or any exceptions which would enable us to register her in DC for the 2025/26 year. She is very advanced developmentally and we would love to not pay an extra year of daycare...
Thanks!