North Carolina Kindergarten Age Requirements
John Smith was born on July 8. 2005. He is eligible to take admission into a North Carolina public kindergarten in the year 2010 at the start of the academic year. This is so because according to the rules of the state, he will have attained the age of five by August 16, 2010. Therefore we can say that John Smith is eligible to start his kindergarten education in the year 2010.
There is an exception to this rule. Students who have newly become the residents of North Carolina can are exempted from this rule. If they were already studying in a public kindergarten in the previous state qualifying all the eligibility criteria of that state, then the kids are allowed to take admission in North Carolina public kindergarten. This is true even if they do not qualify the North Carolina Kindergarten age requirements of five years as on August 16 of every academic year. Let us take another example to understand this.
Suppose John Smith was born on July 8, 2006 in Texas. He is eligible to begin kindergarten in Texas as the minimum age requirement in Texas is only 4 years. If in the middle of his kindergarten tenure he shifts to North Carolina, he will be eligible to take admission in public kindergarten here even though he doesn’t qualify the North Carolina Kindergarten age requirements. This is so because he was already studying in a kindergarten in the state where he resided previously. State doesn’t think shifting to North Carolina is his fault in anyway. So there is no need for him to drop a year of his formal education.
One thing to note here is that these regulations apply only on public kindergartens. Public kindergartens are run by the state government or receive funds from it for their operations and functioning. The privately held and managed kindergartens are free to set their own minimum age requirements. They are not under any obligation to follow the regulations of state government in this regard.