At recent School Committee meetings, members have raised the possibility of changing the district’s cutoff date for kindergarten enrollment. These discussions were prompted by a set of parents who had wanted to enroll their son but could not because he was born on Sept. 2, the day after the cutoff. Instead, they have to wait another year for him to start kindergarten.
Superintendent of Schools Josh Vadala pointed out the blindingly obvious problem with changing the date. Sept. 2 is just as arbitrary of a date as Sept. 1. There are 365 days in the year, and people are born on every single one of them. No matter what the enrollment date is, there is always going to be a child who misses the cutoff and has to wait until the next year to enroll in kindergarten. Choosing a different date would just move the problem, not solve it.
One of the committee’s members, Beverley Griffin Dunne, suggested the Quality and Standards Subcommittee meet with educators to determine why Sept. 1 was chosen as the cutoff date in the first place. But there is one particular advantage that date, which is the same that 86% of the districts in the Commonwealth use as a cutoff, has. As the first day of the month when the school year begins, Sept. 1 is easy for parents to remember. It is certainly easier to remember than Sept. 2 or another random date. The only other date that I could see being just as easy to remember is Jan. 1, but changing the enrollment cutoff by that much, after it has been Sept. 1 for so long, would probably be much more disruptive than beneficial to the district.
School Committee member Jarrod Hochman went further, saying that the committee might want to reconsider whether students should be a certain age to enter kindergarten. If Peabody Public Schools got rid of the cutoff, Vadala warned, it would sacrifice funding from the Commonwealth that is tied to state reporting. He also pointed out that the cutoffs are there for a reason, as students born late in August often struggle more in their classes.
This speaks to the reason why this whole issue was so bewildering to me: I didn’t understand why the parents wanted to enroll their child in the earlier year so badly. I’ve heard of parents intentionally waiting a year to enroll their kids so they will be bigger, stronger, and — they hope — more athletic than their peers. While I think this is a very short-sighted and misguided thing to do, I at least see the logic behind it. Why, given the disadvantages younger children often have in their classes, would parents want to enroll them before the cutoff date?
I think the most likely explanation is that they are excited for their son and don’t want to wait for him to begin his education. Eager to see what he will discover and experience, they are frustrated that the difference of 24 hours is the only thing forcing him to wait another year for kindergarten to start. I also understand why School Committee members, trying to respond to their constituents, are looking into what can be done about this policy. However, there are limits to the extent that elected officials can resolve the issues their voters face. As long as school districts in Massachusetts have to set cutoff dates for enrollment, there is always going to be someone who is born the day after.
Stuart Foster is The Weekly News’ opinion editor.
