The state is changing the age requirement for kindergarteners and it's causing some stress and confusion for some families.
Starting next school year, kids must turn 5 years old by Sept. 1 to be eligible for kindergarten.
Parents can seek a waiver if they’re child is 4 years old, but has a birthday between Sept. 2 and Dec. 31. The problem is, school districts are handling that process differently.
“There's no uniformity or consistency across the state, and that’s really hard for parents to navigate,” Coralys Santana, a policy and advocacy strategist with the Connecticut Project, said.
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Parents of 9,000 children born in that four-month window are now scrambling to figure out if they can get their kids into kindergarten or if they’ll need one more year of preschool.
The Connecticut Project released a survey Tuesday of 98 superintendents detailing how differently school districts are handling the change.
The study found only 60% of surveyed districts have posted information on their websites about how parents can apply for a waiver.
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Many families of incoming kindergarteners are trying to enroll their kids now. Parents will also need to start seeking a preschool seat if that’s ultimately what happens with their 4-year-old.
“It's confusing, it’s frustrating,” said Santana, who has a child who will be eligible by turning 5 years old in July.
School districts have the flexibility in how they assess a child’s readiness for kindergarten, including whether that assessment is the only factor or part of a broader evaluation.
The Connecticut Project survey found that 37.2% of superintendents said they don’t have the resources to conduct an assessment. So some districts are providing a questionnaire for parents to complete with help from their preschool teachers or childcare providers.
More than half of superintendents said the state should delay implementation, but Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendent Fran Rabinowicz said that’s unlikely.
She does agree the state should have phased in the requirement – the legislature approved the change just last session – to give districts more time to prepare. Part of the problem is the difficulty in assessing a 4-year-old's readiness.
“They may not know the letters a, b, c today, but they may know them two days from now,” Rabinowicz said.
She said superintendents are doing what they can to help parents who may need to find another year of preschool for their children.
Some are trying to ensure seats are available, while others are creating a special transitional program for four-year-olds who aren’t enrolled.
Unfortunately, the additional year of preschool can be an unexpected cost for parents who planned to enroll their kids in preschool before the change.
Advocates also said preschool and childcare programs are already dealing with shortages and waitlist. That’s before as many as 9,000 kids could return for another year.
They want more funding for early childhood programming, especially in the form of subsidies for low-income families whose kids now need another year. Some lawmakers agree.
“One of the things we can do is put resources, dollars into expanding out childhood offerings across the state,” Sen. Douglas McCrory (D-Hartford), co-chair of the Education Committee, said.
