Cut-off Dates

Each state has a date by which a child must be 5 in order to start Kindergarten, but the date is not the same in every state. This date is commonly referred to as the cut-off date.The primary reason why Ellie has been denied entry to first grade this year (and kindergarten last year) is because of the fact that her birth date fell after the cut-off date last year.

Ironically, Ellie would have been admitted without discussion to schools in a number of states. According to information on cut-off dates from the Education Commission of the states, Ellie would have qualified for Kindergarten in 1998 in 21 states. She may have qualified for in additional 6 states where admission policies are solely under the local control. In the states that remain, 15 states adhere to the Sept 1 date; however, a number of these also provide provisions whereby children whose birth date falls within 30 days of the cut-off date can tested to receive a waiver of the age requirement. In the end, Ellie could have legally attained admission into Kindergarten in an estimated 80% or greater of the U.S. states in 1998.

If the inconsistency in state laws governing cut-off dates isn't confusing enough, consider this:

Typically, each school district may set its own policy regarding waivers to the cut-off date. Some districts are EXTREMELY strict while others are not. There appears to be no common repository that allows a parent to enter a location and then receive the exact policy for the district.

The ultimate decision on whether or not to advance a child's grade early rests with the principal, teachers, and/or pyschologist for the school. As expected, this makes for a large variation in the enforcement of policies even within a district.

As Alan said not so long ago, "All of this wouldn't be so bad but they make it so difficult to get a straight answer!" Since there appears to be no central repository for cut-off date information, the parent may have to go through extensive battles just to find the policy.

An example

Here's an example of how much trouble this can be. In our case, we called the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) who told us that the issue was handled locally (at the district level). We called the district and were told the date. When we asked whether there were exceptions to the cut-off date, we were told that the state does not allow exceptions to the cut-off. So then we called the ISBE again. State law, in fact, does NOT rule out the possibility of early admission. Rather, the law states that districts may make exceptions. Finally, we asked the school to see the rules regarding the cut-off date and allowances to that date in writing (we actually should have done this from the beginning). It took about a week for the school to produce this informaiton and even then, the information pertaining to exceptions was missing. Ironically, when we received the student handbook at the beginning of the year, the information was right there (exactly as it appears in the handbook):

"School district attendance begins with a kindergarten program which [the district] operates for children who reach the age of five years on or before September 1. Children who reach the age of five years after September 1 must wait until the following September to attend. THERE CAN BE NO EXCEPTION TO THIS CUTOFF DATE.

Children entering first grade must be six years of age on or before September 1."