One of the most important decisions we make for our children occurs before the first day of school. When will we send them is a question that is more important than most parents give it credit for. A quick and reflexive response detailing chronological age is not an appropriate response. Commonly, there is almost a year of allowable time between the youngest and the oldest in a grade, but for the children in the earliest of grades, that year is a gigantic difference in the social and emotional abilities of a child.
Starting School Too Young?
For public schools in New York, the child must turn 5 by December 31st of the entering school year. This inevitably means, however, that children born in very late December, who may be on the cusp of the mental maturity to handle a long school day, are put in a position of keeping up with their older peers. They start young and may have to struggle emotionally and socially to keep up.
For ISAAGNY NYC Private Schools, the cut off for admissions is earlier:
Most schools have a birthday cutoff. The purpose of a birthday cutoff is to ensure the proper range in age for students in a particular group, depending on the age level and educational approach. For example, many ISAAGNY schools that start at the kindergarten level have a September 1 cutoff. This means that a child must be 5 years old by September 1 of the kindergarten year. A child should not apply to a school if he/she does not meet the cutoff date.
If you have questions about when your child should start school, remember that there are many unique factors that you as a parent will be able to recognize. Independence, self-confidence and interaction with other children are all huge indicators of readiness to learn. If your child was pushed into school “too early,” their understandable difficulties can easily lock them into a pathway of academic under achievement at school and may very well follow them throughout their formative years.
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Now that the NYC private school acceptance and rejection letters have been mailed out, some parents are thrilled and relieved and some are sorely disappointed. The children may not know or care what school they’ll be attending, but they are also feeling the effects of their success or failure to get into the right school. While some children are basking in their parents’ approval, others no doubt feel that they have let their parents down. Parents need to be aware that children are highly sensitive to their parents’ moods and are listening even when they don’t seem to be. 
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