CPS Won't Let You Delay Enrollement If Your Child Has a Birthdate Before Sept.1

You're not legally obligated to provide education for a child until they are 6. You can also do homeschooling. There's lots of support for that and wonderful homeschool academies.

I know you can do it in Arlington Heights district 25. My friend was able to hold back her daughter who has a June birthday.

Lincolnwood let me hold my son back. They never even questioned me about my choice. My son has the exact birthday Aug. 28th. Technically he could be in 2nd grade now, but he is in 1st.

You do not have to enroll your child in prek at all. Also some CPS schools have prek for 3 year olds while others' prek programs start at 4 years old.

One thing to consider...sometimes enrollment in prek is the entre into the school...if you are interested in a particular school in a long-term way, you should look at whether they give preference to the kids who started there in prek (most do this).

I sent my daughter to Concordia (Seeley Campus) just after she was 3 and had a good experience with them. They have very flexible schedules (you can choose a couple days a week or all week, they may do half day options as well, you can take summers off and still retain your spot) and a sliding scale for tuition. I'd recommend them if you wanted to start him out slowly with a school experience -they have a very warm culture and good people there.

I would have kept her there another year except that I had a particular CPS school in mind for her and they have a prek program...it was unlikely that they would have spot open for her later in kinder if she had not started with them the year before.

Hope this helps - the search for the right school ca
n be so daunting and awful but you will eventually get through it and hopefully find a fabulous place for him.

Private schools will allow you to hold your child back a year and probably encourage you to do so. Mine went to preschool at St James Lutheran. My 2nd was born at the end of July, he was the 2nd youngest in his class. All of the August children were held back. I don't see why CPS cares, that really surprises me.

Good luck!
B.

Hi J., I think you may have been given some erroneous information regarding CPS. I live in the city as well, my daughter is currently 3 1/2 and I am not enrolling her in preschool until next year when she'll be 4 1/2. It is a long story as to why, but our public school has no issue with us enrolling her next year when she is 4. They actually told me they prefer it.

Besides, all public schools operate under state regulations and preschool is not a state mandate. You don't ever have to send your child to preschool in Illinois if you don't want to.

You may want to talk to someone else at the school in your neighborhood because enrolling in preschool at age 4 should not be an issue. Sorry you are getting the run-around!

Good luck!

Hi J.,
I know for a fact that there are suburban schools that WILL let you hold your son back for a year. My friend has a daughter with an Aug. 28 birthday and she chose to hold her back for an extra year with no problem at all. That is YOUR perogative as a parent. Her daughter is now 10 years old and in 4th grade and is doing great. Definitely look around until you find what will work for you and your son. Good luck! C.

We live in Riverside, which is a hidden suburb about 20 minutes from downtown (just as far west as Harlem). We love it.

Our son is also an August birthday and we decided to hold him back. All I did was call the school secretary and tell her the week before school started and the decision was done and she was very supportive telling us that another parent called and did the same thing.

Good luck!

That's crazy. I grew up in chicago (catholic school) and know plenty of people who were held back a year. And yes, in our suburb you can hold them back(elmhurst). I'm debating that right now for my 4 year old...he was due August 29th, but was born in June! I can't believe the public schools wouldn't let you decide what is best for your son.

Try Montessori. They group the kids together. The younger ones feed off the older ones and I think it helps them catch up quicker. We had our daughter enrolled at Montessori academy of Chicago in the west loop and were quite pleased.

My daughter has a classmate who had this same problem with CPS. They are at Catherine Cook.

What school do you go to? My son is 4 and has already had a year of preschool at CPS. His teacher is the one that suggested we hold him back a year and he will start kindergarten at 6? He has a slight speech delay and has OT delays as well. His birthday is August 23. You can fight it- all I had to do was write a letter to prinipal explaining why I wanted to- developmentally. He will have 3 years of PREK. Is how he does the first two years of PREK and go from there. The prinipal can make the decision.

Why decide now? Unless he has developmental delays, why hold back on size? There is always going to be the smallest, largest, smartest, meanest, or whatever in every class.

What if you just don't enroll? I am sure you are not the only one in the CPS system that has come across this.

Good luck with your decision.

I haven't read all the replys but I can tell you this...I work for CPS and the cut off date is Sept 1st. In order to enroll in a 4yr old preK program the child must be 4 by sept 1st just like for Kinder a child must be 5 by sept 1st. PreK and K are optional, they are stages to prepare children for 1st grade. You dont have to enroll your child now.

NOW, if you do enroll your child at a preK 3 program now they will automatically put him in PreK next year and in Kinder and so on as long as you keep him there. If at any moment you want your child to repeat a grade (like keeping him in K for two years) that is possible and all it takes is a conference with the teachers and the principal. Of course, this is not recommended if your child shows that he is meeting standards and doing good in school.

As for your question, I dont quite understand the problem, you do or dont want to enroll your child?

Hope this helps.

I believe Catholic schools in Chicago and in the suburbs would gladly let you wait a year before enrolling him.
By the way, We kept our son home who has a summer birthday and it was the best decision we ever made. He is a senior in high school now and we have never regretted the decision. Good luck.

My son's birthday is September 1. He was large. So I enrolled him with some misgivings early. I figured he'd be larger than everyone.He let me know that he felt behind for a long time and I have regretted it. He was and is now catching up at the age of nineteen in college. Let him be a little child. You are the mom. You are allowed to make a decision that is right for your child. And they grow up so fast. Miss my son in the service every day and wish I could turn back time and the other one lives at home but is seldom seen. Please just enjoy your child.Another poster was right. There are probably plenty of parents who have their children home another year. And they won't turn him down from school in the future if he didn't go. And I'm sure the preschool police will pretty likely leave you alone. Just hug your little guys for me and love them to pieces.

State mandates do not require that you enroll your child in school until age 6. So I'd suggest you play it by ear until then. If you can and need to keep him home, then do so. When he turns 6 enroll him in Kindergarten or 1st grade, which ever feels right for you.
If you have a CPS school in mind that you hope to enroll him - get involved ther now. Join the Local School Council. Attend PTA meetings, get to know the Principal and staff. they are your best assests when it comes down to the wire.

You are making the right decision. My son made the cutoff by 3 days by being born 3 months premature. Even our ped recommended holding him back. It was a great decision and our son Zach ios now 11 and in 5th grade and doing fabulously. It was the right thing to do especially since boys mature more slowly than girls.

Our son attends a Catholic school in the western suburbs.

Good Luck!

If you want to hold him back a year, inform CPS that you're sending him to a private. Then next year, perhaps you can start at CPS? You could even say you're homeschooling.
I'm just guessing here, not yet in this situation...

Hi J.,
Check out the Chicago Public Schools website, and look for schools in your region if you don't have a CPS directory. I believe the Catholic Schools are more flexible when it comes to birthdates. Now as your child gets older, CPS has alot of great options.

All the Best,
D.

I think maybe you are worrying for nothing. Why don't you wait and see how your son does in school before you worry about him being too young/little? I think your worrying is a bit premature and you should give your son the chance to tackle this milestone with other kids the same age. He's not going to be the only kid with an August birthday in his class : ) And for sure there will be older kids that are also very small for their age... He could be the brightest kid in his class : ) Why not give him the chance to go to school with kids his own age?

I studied early childhood education in college, and one thing I remember is that children in IL do not HAVE to be in school until the age of 6. The law may have changed since then; I don't know. But I would think especially at 4, you aren't required to enroll your child in any type of schooling.

I know plenty of people whose kids go to a cps school who are a year behind. So if you want to do that I would be more insistent and write to the principal. However, maybe your child doesn't show any signs of delay and so he may be better in with kids his own age. Private certainly will let you place him in whatever age group is good for you. Montessori can be a great option as it has mixed ages (3-6). here in Oak Park, there are quite a few montessoris. my little one goes to mosaic montessori in river forest for the toddler program and loves it.

Boy do I know about frustrating school systems !! On a FEW levels..I had 1 son born so busy...that I still think he has adhd ( he's 24 now, but was never diagnosed ) . We enrolled him in early childhood class when he was 4. Like kindergarten but structured to be a little more one on one. When he got to kindergarten.. he didn't do as well as he should have..and wasn't bad enough to hold back..so was put into JR. FIRST. a step between kindergarten and first. In this class.. he bloomed. Later in school years.. he began again to get in trouble.. this time when he was tested.. it was found he was far ahead of his class and bored so he'd cause trouble for something to do.. The school had him skip a grade..gave him a counselor to help with the transition, and again ( at least till teenage attitudes stepped in ) problem solved. I hope this will help raise some questions about your son that our lovely school system has failed to address with you. I couldn't afford private schools.
My sister could.. and she recomends that you ask about Montisorie ( not sure if I spelled that right) school systems.. where kids are not graduated from one year to another by calender years..but rather by abilities. My niece went though this .. it goes up to 8th grade. My neice is exceptionally bright and is now a special needs teacher in Fla.. for the exceptional deaf kids. Good luck with your future years of mommy hood..and hope it works out well.

Can't you just hold what him back on your own and enroll him in the school of your choice the following year? CPS can't dictate what you do with your child. I was a CPS teacher (mind you, inner city) and we had kids being enrolled in 1st grade when they were the age of a 2nd grader but had never been to ANY school before...they have to take your child. Now I don't know if this affects which school your child tends (if you don't want your neighborhood school) but I just don't see how CPS can tell you what to do. You know your child and what's best for him.