Kindergarten entry date is changing Fall 2013!

The Michigan Legislature has passed a law which changes the date a child is eligible for Kindergarten entry beginning with the 2013-2014 school year (Fall 2013).  Prior to this legislation, a child was eligible if he/she turned five years old on or before December 1st.  However, this is no longer the law.  Beginning next fall, a child is eligible for Kindergarten entry if he/she is five years old as of November 1st.  The law gradually moves the eligible date back to September 1st over the course of the following two schools years.  By the 2016-17 school year, a child must be five years of age by September 1st to be eligible for Kindergarten.

 What this change means for next school year is that if you are a parent of a child who turns five between November 2 - December 1 of 2013 he or she is no longer eligible for Kindergarten entry with one exception:  The legislature is allowing parents to file a “waiver” with their school district by June 1, 2013, allowing their child to attend Kindergarten next fall.  Parents need to contact their local school district to receive a copy of the waiver form and file it with their local district.  Otherwise, pre-school is an option for those children, and parents are encouraged to phone the Muskegon Area Intermediate School District (231-767-8300) to learn of free pre-school opportunities in your local district.

 Please contact the elementary office (719-4200) :

· If you have a child who will be eligible to start Kindergarten next year we need to make sure we have your child on our Kindergarten Round-Up Roster. 

· Please pass the word around...if you know a NM resident who has a child that might be ready to start school next year, we would like to add them to our upcoming student roster as well.

· If you are a current Schools of Choice parent, please contact the office if there are siblings who you hope might attend North Muskegon Schools next year.

 This information is needed to help us estimate the student population for the upcoming year.  These numbers will be used to determine the number of School of Choice openings for the 2013-2014 school year.

We appreciate your help in getting this information to us as soon as possible!