By Lindsay Tice,Staff Writer

A proposed bill would require kindergartners to be 5 years old by Sept. 1 instead of Oct. 15.

Teachers say kindergarten is more academic and 4-year-olds are too young.

A public hearing on the bill will be held before the Legislature’s Education Committee at 1 p.m. Tuesday, March 22, in the Cross Office Building in Augusta.

Too young for school?
A new bill would change the cutoff date for kindergarten

Every year, kindergarten teacher Lori Plummer sees kids who shouldn’t be in school.

They’re not independent enough. They have problems paying attention and following directions.

They’re just too young.

“Kindergarten is becoming so academic now,” she said. “The expectations continue to rise.”

Next week, Plummer will speak in support of a bill to keep her very youngest kindergartners out of the classroom for an extra year.

“It’s something to help, to know these little people are walking through the door (at age) 5,” she said.

Currently, children must be 5 years old by Oct. 15 to enroll in kindergarten in Maine. That means some children may be 4 when they start school.

The proposal, sponsored by Sen. John Nutting, D-Leeds, would make that cutoff Sept. 1, guaranteeing that every kindergartner has turned 5 by the time school starts.

Nutting submitted the bill, he said, after hearing from kindergarten teachers who were struggling with kids too immature for the classroom.

“This is one small step, but a step in the right direction,” Nutting said.

But some parents and others aren’t so sure.

New demands

Plummer, a kindergarten teacher at Guy E. Rowe School in Norway, was one of the educators who suggested the bill to Nutting. Though age isn’t the only reason a child might be ill-prepared for school, she believes it can be a big factor.

Kindergarten used to be an easy way to introduce children to school. Kids were successful if they learned how to share and raise their hands. Now, that first year is increasingly academic, with math and reading lessons replacing nap time.

Plummer said she often sees young children who struggle in class for months and aren’t developmentally able to meet the social, emotional and academic demands of kindergarten.

Those who start school at 4 have to keep up with some kids who are nearly an entire year older, she said. Many just can’t do it.

She believes an earlier cutoff – even if it’s only six weeks – would help ensure that all of her kindergartners are ready for the classroom.

“It just makes more sense that when they enter school they are a true 5-year-old,” she said.

Other kindergarten teachers agreed.

“It has come up several times,” said Lee Hearn, a longtime kindergarten teacher at Sherwood Heights Elementary School in Auburn, which has a full-day program. “We would like the date to be August 1.”

Increasingly, Hearn and her co-workers have found young students unprepared for school. They believe an earlier cutoff date would force kids to mature before entering the classroom.

So does Ann Hobart, a kindergarten teacher at Minot Consolidated School. Although Maine parents are allowed to keep their children out of school until age 7, Hobart said parents automatically enroll some 4-year-olds in kindergarten because their birthday just meets the cutoff date.

“I think they say, Oh, it’s time. I’ll send my child to school.’ But they don’t realize it boils down to readiness,” Hobart said.

Schools can make kids repeat kindergarten if they aren’t successful, and many schools have remedial programs for kids who are promoted to the first grade but need help catching up to their peers. Both choices can be crushing to a 5-year-old’s self-esteem, teachers said.

The best solution is keeping very young students out of school an extra year, Hobart said. When they do finally enter kindergarten, they are often more confident and more successful.

“The whole thing is we have to look at the children’s best interest,” she said. “Why are we in such a rush to make these kids grow up?”

Opponents

But at Androscoggin County Head Start, Director Estelle Rubinstein and parent mentor Tina Hutchinson aren’t so sure an earlier cutoff date is the answer.

They believe the bill would affect dozens of low-income Head Start kids since the pre-school program can’t keep them if they turn 5 by Oct. 15. Head Start could change that policy to reflect any kindergarten changes, but Rubinstein said it would take time. In the meantime, dozens of children could be ineligible for both Head Start and kindergarten.

Rubinstein believes a quality, public pre-kindergarten program would ensure that kids are prepared for kindergarten better than a new cutoff date.

Hutchinson agreed. And while the bill is supposed to help struggling 4-year-olds, she also believes it would ultimately hurt those 4-year-olds who are truly ready for school.

“They’re not going to get any further ahead by waiting a year,” she said. “They’re just going to get more bored.”

A public hearing on the bill will be held before the Legislature’s Education Committee Tuesday. The meeting will begin at 1 p.m. and will be held in the Cross Office Building in Augusta.

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