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New Law Makes NYC Kindergarten Mandatory Starting September 2013

7/25/12 - By Alina Adams

There's been an update to this law. We've got the info here.

Kindergarten used to be optional for NYC students. Parents who wanted to keep their kids home or delay school until first grade were allowed to do so. Not anymore. Governor Cuomo recently signed legislation that makes kindergarten mandatory for all New York City five-year-olds. There are certainly benefits to this change, but some big questions, too.

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The NYC City Council, headed by Speaker Christine Quinn, who made a huge push for mandatory kindergarten, applauded the decision, writing, "By giving us the authority to lower the compulsory age of schooling to age five, we're taking a significant step toward closing the achievement gap. Experts agree that the most vulnerable New Yorkers will be helped by ensuring that every child in New York City starts school at age five."

Starting in 2013, all five-year-olds will be guaranteed a kindergarten seat, regardless of school overcrowding, although not necessarily at their zone schools, a caveat that's upsetting some parents. A few other important details still need to be worked out, including a proposed change to the qualifying birthday cutoff from December 31 to December 1, and some vague talk about a "waiver" for parents who "elect not to enroll their five-year-olds in school until the following September." As this InsideSchools article explains, it's unclear whether that means the kids will go directly to first grade, or attend kindergarten at age six. Families who subscribe to redshirting will certainly want to know.

Since the law is scheduled to go into effect next year, parents with kids set to turn five in 2013 will be the first ones affected. Will the new regulation alter your plans for your child?

About the Author

Alina Adams

Alina Adams - NYC Writer

Alina was born in the former Soviet Union, spent her teen years in San Francisco, and came to New York City to work for ABC Daytime and ABC Sports. She spent her pre-marriage/pre-kid years as a figure-skating researcher and producer for the U.S. and World Championships, the 1998 Olympics in Nagano and various professional shows.

After learning that international travel and resentful toddlers don’t mix, she switched to PGP Productions and its soap operas As the World Turns and Guiding Light, where she wrote New York Times best-selling tie-in books and developed interactive properties like AnotherWorldToday.com.

The birth of her third child (and the process of enrolling her two older kids into NYC schools—a full-time job in itself!) convinced Alina that she was not, in fact, Superwoman, and prompted her to leave TV and turn to writing books, including romance novels (Counterpoint: An Interactive Family Saga, When a Man Loves a Woman), figure-skating mysteries (Murder on Ice, On Thin Ice) and nonfiction (Soap Opera 451: A Time Capsule of Daytime Drama’s Greatest Moments).

In addition to contributing to Mommy Poppins, Alina blogs for Jewish parenting site Kveller.com and is in the process of turning her previously published backlist into enhanced e-books with multimedia features like audio, video and more. Follow her exhaustive and exhausting efforts to become a Mommy Media Mogul (is that a thing? If it isn’t, it really should be) at AlinaAdams.com and on Google+

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