PP at 11:25, my daughter did not tell me what she did in her assessment, but she was admitted EEK, which I don't think she would have been if she had had to show that she already knew everything she was supposed to learn in kindergarten.

My advice is: don't stress yet. And especially don't stress your daughter! I'm speaking as somebody who did stress...but all I told my daughter was that we were going to kindergarten orientation, where somebody would take her to a different room by herself to ask her some questions.

For the poster from 2/21 at 10:30 who appealed an initial EEK rejection, would you be willing to talk a bit about how you appealed? My daughter misses the cut-off by 1 day (15 hours to be exact), and I am dreading the "assessment" experience. I've been told the testing requires children to basically demonstrate they already have all the skills other children will have by the END of kindergarten, which seems like a ridiculously high standard. I'm confident my daughter is ready for kindergarten, but I don't think she should be expected to be ready for first grade skills at the time of the assessment when she'll be 4.5! I am also frustrated at the lack of attention the school systems seems to be paying to examining the specific child's needs. My daughter is 15 hours too young and clearly would not benefit from spending another year in preschool, but there is no apparent consideration for that. There is a rigid test with rigid expectations and that's the end of it. I feel like I need to prepare to do battle (e.g. appeal a potentially negative decision) to ensure the best outcome for MY child.

Anyone know if birthday is actually 9/1 do they make the cutoff or not? Just curious.

10:53 - I haven't been one of the people on this board who has been criticizing you. Just wanted to point out that you are not helping your case by substituting 'preciousness' when you meant 'precociousness'.

Anonymous wrote:Here's one for you. I am expecting a child on September 16. I have a current kindergartener in MoCo. I will be induced before my due date with this pregnancy unless I go naturally early. I have been told because of my medical condition that I can be induced as early as 38 weeks, or September 2. Really, because we are in K, and we are older parents, I am really considering asking for an induction on Sept. 1 (if it is safe for the baby). I know it's not rational, but frankly, it leaves the K decision in my hands, not the county. It is unfortunate that the county seems to be very strict on admission based on whether a child is born on the 1st or the 2nd.

My DC2 had a due date of 9/3. The terrible, MoCo mother i am, my first thought was "So close to the cutoff!"


And then he was late. And every day he didn't come I thought "at least he won't be weeks late, it'll still be ok"


He's 3 now, and HUGE for his age (seems, dare I say it? Average academically). We'll see how he's doing when the time comes, and will probably do the assessment.

Just wnted to say - I hear you OP!

My daughter missed the cut off by five days. We applied for EEK and were denied. Then we appealled, were accepted and my daughter has been doing very well ever since. It's such an individual decision thought and is certainly not right for every child.

My daughter is now in first grade reading at 5th grade level and is one year ahead in math. Is she a genious? No, but I can't imagine having waited another year. Socially she is fantastic, participates in class, follows directions well, makes friends easliy, etc. If anything I wish that her work was bit more challenging- it just all seems too easy for her.

Her K teacher told me that she was on the EEK committee and agreed with the initial rejection. She was quite upset that her decision was overturned by the appeals committee (and told my husband and I that on a couple of occassions). Fortunately she eventually came around and realized that my daughter belonged in K that year.

Good luck!

My DD's birthday is in late Sept. She did the early entrance exam which takes place out of your sight, so I have no idea what the test actually consists of. A letter arrived in the mail announcing that she was not offered early admission. That was that.

I'm quite sure she would have been fine in K this year. She is a 2nd child, physically tall and advanced. On the other hand, it is truly only recently (past couple months) that she's been really interested in sitting still and practicing letters, writing, etc. My only fear is that she will be bored in K next year. She is enjoying the extra preschool "play" year, though.

Umm..that 75% issue only occurs the one year they move the cutoff back..otherwise it has no effect on enrollement/budget.

Will you idiots stop making stupid remarks. This is a serious issue and if it was your child, you would have a totally different perspective. Everyone keeps saying early, but its not really early. Keep in mind, the school system moved the dates back to Sept 1st, had this been 5 years ago, these kids would have been forced to go to school. So how can you all think a child born Aug. 31 is so much more ready than a child born 1-45days later. That is about the most ridiculous thing i have ever heard. I could understand if a child was born many months later. Have anyone ever considered that your child will be the oldest in the senior class at 18 and when they are datign a sophmore at 16 then in some states they will go to jail.............everyone is looking at it the wrong way. The schools are trying to keep enrollment low and that is just the most selfish reason i have ever heard of. Sept. 1st 25% into the year so only 75% of kids that were born that year get to go to school because of budgets. Please. and for all that has no support for these women, just shut up and dont say anything. Please, mothers, keep fighting for your child to get an education where you pay your taxes. I guarantee you that the Board of Education kids are not having this issue.

Will you idiots stop making stupid remarks. This is a serious issue and if it was your child, you would have a totally different perspective. Everyone keeps saying early, but its not really early. Keep in mind, the school system moved the dates back to Sept 1st, had this been 5 years ago, these kids would have been forced to go to school. So how can you all think a child born Aug. 31 is so much more ready than a child born 1-45days later. That is about the most ridiculous thing i have ever heard. I could understand if a child was born many months later. Have anyone ever considered that your child will be the oldest in the senior class at 18 and when they are datign a sophmore at 16 then in some states they will go to jail.............everyone is looking at it the wrong way. The schools are trying to keep enrollment low and that is just the most selfish reason i have ever heard of. Sept. 1st 25% into the year so only 75% of kids that were born that year get to go to school because of budgets. Please. and for all that has no support for these women, just shut up and dont say anything. Please, mothers, keep fighting for your child to get an education where you pay your taxes. I guarantee you that the Board of Education kids are not having this issue.

DC was born on September 4th. Sad, but true, I thought about this from the moment I heard his 9/5 due date!

I agree with PP, i would liek to be in control of the decision rather than the county.

There is a huge range of ages, i realize the school has to draw a line in teh sand somewhere, etc.

I just can't wrap my head around a 4 day age difference between going to K in 2012 and goign to K in 2013

Just because they do not pass the test doesn't mean they are not ready. My son did not pass their test, so I home schooled him for kindergarten and when I took my 5 1/2 year old for Kindergarten screening the next year, he was reading at a 3rd grade level, doing math and science and all the teachers recommended I place him in 1st grade in the fall. I did, and he is now a Junior in high school, just inducted into the National Honor Society, Varsity letters in 2 sports, and is planning on college. Don't let one test on a 4 year old child determine his life path.

To the OP, on the topic originally posed:

My friend had a child born 9/27. They were in PG county. They did the early-admit test (despite all of us telling them it's crazy to push forward, including the preschool teacher). But, they did it anyway (note that the boy's father was valdictorian of the engineering college that he went to). The boy, who could not or would not write his name at the time, passed the test, just barelyl. The tester told the parents he was really borderline. In fact, the boy had a bit of a meltdown during the test, but took a break and went back in and finished. I believe the tester or the principal commented to the parents that they weren't too worried about the boy b/c of the involvement of the parents. Anyway, he is now finisheing first grade... definitely reading at late third grade level. He doesn't interact with a lot of the other kids, but he has a buddy or two. He'll probably never be the most socially adept kid (knowing his father), but academically, he was ready and he seems to have been successful with it.

As for the people who always say "no one has ever regretted holding a child back..." Well, I have a neighbor boy I'd like you to meet! He was an Aug. 7th bday and his mom kept him back. Smart kid. In fact, he's so advanced mentally for his age that he is manipulative and thinks of ways to dominate or hurt other kids his age. I think he would have been a lot better off being with the next higher grade of kids where the mental playing field was more even and he could get challenged by kids his own age. As it is, he is able to dominate kids in his grade and that carries over to how he interacts with younger kids.

Anyway, I don't know how they do it in MCPS, but in PGCPS, they have had more than one child pass the test in the past few years.

To the PP who is considering inducing early to make kindergarten cutoff, you're not alone!

https://www.msu.edu/~dickertc/schoolcutoffsandtimingApr282009.pdf

Back to the OP, my daughter did early admittance to K. Born Sept. 4, so she missed the cutoff by just a few days, but was reading at age 3 and ready for the intellectual side of school. She did fine on the admittance test: I wasn't allowed in the room while she was being tested and she didn't really give me a full report on what it involved, although she was shown a page of a book, maybe to check letter recognition, but she started reading it instead. It seemed a few soft skills were also being tested, such as how willing she was to leave me and go with the teacher.

Overall, the early admittance wasn't a problem; she did well in K, but it was touch-and-go for the first part of the year. The long (to her) school day was rough and some social interaction issues (not being willing to sit next to a boy) were present. But the teacher worked well with her, and the year ended up going well.