Talk:First grade

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Is there a standard age requirement to begin 1st grade in the U.S.? How much flexibility is there? I seem to recall that it used to be that a child had to be six by the time they started first grade. Is this a standard requirement, and is discretion given to the parents and school administrators? Basic questions, but I don't see anything about it in the U.S. section.CountMacula (talk) 00:26, 24 October 2018 (UTC)Reply

I doubt that you're still looking to see if someone has answered this comment after over three years, but others might be wondering the same thing, so I'll answer it anyway.

There is not an age requirement for starting first grade in the United States because first grade is not the first year of school. The first year of school in the United States is kindergartern. Most school districts require students to have turned five years old on or before a set date, usually the first day of school, in order to register for kindergarten. Those students would have their birthdays during the kindergarten school year or the summer immediately afterwards, so they would naturally be six by the time they start first grade. However, there are a few relatively rare exceptions to this:

• Sometimes, if the child is unprepared or born very close to the cut-off date, their parent waits another year to put them in kindergarten. This results in the student starting kindergarten at age six and first grade at seven.
• Normal-aged kindergartners who are highly unprepared to go to first grade may sometimes have to repeat kindergarten. These students would be seven by the time they get to first grade.
• It is sometimes possible for a five-year-old child to skip kindergarten and go straight to first grade.
• In some cases, a child who just barely met the age requirement to attend kindergarten may not yet have had their sixth birthday by the time first grade starts and would still be five for the first few days. For example, if the first day of school is August 22 and the student turned five on August 20, that student would be able to go to kindergarten. If the first day of school the next year is August 18, the student would still go to first grade, but they would still be five for the first two days.

Hopefully this helped someone. Evil Sith Lord (talk) 21:13, 17 November 2021 (UTC)Reply