When I started the cut off was Dec 1, but a few years later they changed it to the start date of the school year. However, there was a kid in my kindergarten class who was let in despite having a Dec 3 birthday making him almost a full year younger than the oldest kid in the class (me, with my Dec 4 b-day).
But reading all the posts here, sounds like the answer will be “depends on the school/district”
My local school district has moved the date back to August 1, as has the local Catholic school.
Back when I was a kid, the cutoff date was December 31, the calendar year.
October 1, I believe. My cousin is about six months older than me but we were originally in different grades, until he was held back a year. His birthday is September 27, and I remember his being the youngest in his class.
Here the cutoff is now September 1, it’s been that way for about thirty years. Before that it was Dec 31.
I had a cousin who’s birthday is September 5, he started scholl here when it was the later cut off date. So he went to kindergarten and started first grade. Then the family moved to the idotic state of Texas, who had a Sept 1 cutoff, and they made him go back to kindergarten!
My birthday is Dec 31 so I could have started school a year earlier, and graduated from high school in 1972. But my folks held me back so I graduated in 1973. I think it was all for the best, an extra year’s development helped me in school.
Wait, there are places that make the student repeat a grade because they’re the wrong “year”? Even if they already started the track on a place with a different cutoff?
Is that something usual, or just happens for the earlier grades (pre-K, K, first grade maybe?)?
September 1 here. When I was growing up on the other side of the Potomac an age or so ago, it was September 30.
It was calendar year when I was in school (must turn 5 prior to Jan 1 to start K). Looks like CT tried to move it to Oct 1 last year but couldn’t get it done, and is still trying now. MA is by individual school district, and most of them are 8/31 or 9/1, with a few exceptions.
I dunno, I’m a November and I started K at 4. I was pretty clearly ready both in education and maturity, and being one of the smallest/youngest kids wasn’t a big issue (either starting out or at any point through school). I think the flexibility is the important part.
When I started school in 1992, the cutoff for our district was Dec. 31. My birthday is in October, so I started K at 4 years old. It was never a problem. My brother has a December birthday, though, and years later my parents told me they wished they’d held him back. He had some rough times and an extra year might have helped.
I live in the same district now as an adult, and they changed the cutoff a few years ago to Sept. 1. But if your child’s birthday is between Sept. 1 and Oct. 15 and you think they’re ready, you can have them take an early entrance test and they may be able to start early. I understand it’s hard to pass, though.
Some school districts in Massachusetts do this. It’s even more complicated. If you go to private school to get “ahead” then when you transfer to public you are put back into kindergarten or first grade.
If on the other hand you transfer from another school district that had a later cut off date (Dec 31 vs Aug 31) you would not be put back. I know a family with a boy born Sep 16th. They did not want to wait another year as their (very tony) district required. They actually rented an apartment in Brockton (one of the worst towns in the state, schools-wise and otherwise) so that they could register him for kindergarten, then a few weeks later they “moved” back to their town, and voila! Their kid was the youngest kindergartener in the school.