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I think it depends on the state, and on the individual school if it's private. In NYC, the cut off is December 31st for public schools...but for private schools, it's much earlier! Sometimes Sept. 1st or earlier.

Now it's harder to get around birthday cutoffs around here. Before you could request a waiver to allow your LO in school early if their birthday was outside the requirements, but now they don't allow it. I know people who have sent their LO to private kindergarten so they could send them early & transfer them into public school for first grade because the private schools would accept them early & the public wouldn't but the public schools also wouldn't make them repeat a grade completed in private school. Craziness!

We have a September 1 cutoff date here in my school district. It's craziness.. In addition to what @mrs. bird said, there are lots of parents holding their kids back from kinder even if they meet the cutoff date to send their kids that year. Mainly for boys, so they will be more emotionally mature, stronger for sports, more advanced than others, etc! It's called red-shirting. I guess its up to the parent what is best for your child.

Depends on the state you live in but yes there are generally age cut offs. Sometimes a child can test out or be put in an older/younger grade though.

They vary by state, but there are exceptions to the rule, as always.

It's Sept. 1 in our district. When I was growing up it was Dec 31st in Maryland (where I was born and did preschool) but Sept 30th in Tennessee (where I moved right before I would have started kindergarten.) They held me back a year because of that.

It's September 30 here, which annoys me because LO's bday is three weeks too late. Mine was 6 days too late, so I was always one of the oldest ones, too. I guess it's okay, I just feel like she'll be ready sooner and have to wait.