School board to review early entrance policy

MAT-SU -- A list of complaints about the Matanuska-Susitna School Board policy on early entrance into kindergarten has caused the board to discuss new alternatives for parents whose children miss the Aug. 15 cut-off date.

"If you think you have a program that works, you should be able to show it," said Heather Robb, who is trying to get her daughter into kindergarten this year.

Currently board policy states that if a child misses the Aug. 15 cut-off date, a parent, at his or her own expense, can have a licensed psychologist administer a battery of tests with the child then have that doctor recommend the child either be put into kindergarten or wait another year. This can be done if the child's birthday is before Oct. 1, according to the policy, after that date the child is required to wait until the following fall to attend kindergarten.

The child must receive an IQ of at least 130 and have the emotional maturity and motor control of a 5-year-old to be recommended for early entrance. The school administration then makes a decision whether or not to allow the child into kindergarten, based on the psychologist's recommendation. If the recommendation is for the child to enter, the board must approve it, if the recommendation is for the child to wait a year, the board is not involved in the decision making process.

Robb, whose daughter was not recommended for early entrance into kindergarten after the child underwent the psychological test, argued that the board's policy does not work, and that her daughter, who missed the Aug. 15 cut-off by two weeks, was unfairly tested. She has requested that the board review the administration's decision, but the board's policy does not allow for individual cases of non-students to be reviewed. The board has decided to review its policy on early entrance as a whole, however.

Assistant Superintendent of Instruction George Troxel went over the pros and cons of the current early entrance policy at the Sept. 3 meeting.

The positive effect of the current policy is that truly advanced students develop and childcare duties are relieved from the parents, Troxel said. But, he said, the students are normally physically smaller than their peers, and if the younger child needs more assistance from the instructor, a stigma from the other students may develop. By state law each school district makes its own policy on early entrance. In Fairbanks, the cut-off is Aug. 15, without any exception. In Anchorage, the policy is more lenient than in Mat-Su and parents can ask the school board to review individual cases. Mat-Su is somewhere between the two extremes.

"I think the process is working," Troxel said. "But not everybody is happy."

This seemed apparent to some of the board members as well, and the board decided to review and possibly change the early entrance policy at their next meeting.

"Let's take out the ambiguity," recommended boardmember Larry DeVilbiss. "Let's go the way of Fairbanks … take out the flexibility because there is always going to be a certain percent of parents that want it to budge."

School board president Mike Chmielewski said, "Our goal is to be able to have a policy that works well."

While Robb is pleased that the board recognized a need for change, she is still frustrated that her daughter did not attend the first day of kindergarten on Monday.

"At this point, I agree with the policy being changed," she said. "But I think [the board] ought to give my daughter the benefit of the doubt and let her attend."

While Robb's request for the board to review her case is not possible, the administration has offered another solution. If Robb would like her daughter to be tested by another psychologist, the administration would be open to reviewing her daughter's recommendation. Robb has opted not to have her daughter tested again.

"If they could rationalize the testing, I'd do it," she said. "But I am not going to set my daughter up for failure."