Early Entrance
Early Entrance Into Kindergarten
Any child who is five years of age on or before August 1st is eligible to attend Kindergarten in Zionsville Community Schools and should register for Kindergarten Round-Up at their home school.
Any child who will turn five years of age between August 2nd and September 30th is eligible to apply for early entrance to kindergarten. Zionsville Community Schools believes that as a general rule, it is beneficial for students to be five years old or older to enter kindergarten. But it is also recognized that there are some exceptional children who are well-advanced -- socially, emotionally, and academically-- who would benefit from early entrance.
Parents who wish to apply for early entrance to kindergarten must complete the Early Entrance to Kindergarten Application (below) and submit the forms to the Academic Services Office, Zionsville Community Schools Educational Services Center, 900 Mulberry Street, Zionsville, IN. 46077 by June 1st.
Early Entrance Into First Grade
Zionsville Community Schools have the authority and responsibility to enroll a student in the appropriate grade based on educational factors [I.C. 20-33-2- 7 (b)]. Based on the state age requirement that a student be five years old by August 1 of the enrolling year for kindergarten, most students entering first grade are six years old by August 1 of the first grade year.
Zionsville Community Schools believes as a general rule, it is beneficial for students to be six years old or older to enter first grade. But it is also recognized that there are some exceptions in the case of:
· A child who has successfully completed kindergarten in Zionsville Community Schools.
· A child who has already successfully completed a full year of kindergarten as a resident student in an accredited school corporation and demonstrated the academic and emotional readiness to enter first grade in ZCS.
· A child who has been enrolled as a resident student in the first grade of another accredited school corporation and is moving into ZCS mid-year.
· A child who is exceptional - socially, emotionally, and academically – who would benefit from early entrance to first grade.
Parents who wish to appeal for a waiver for early entrance to first grade must complete the Early Entrance to First Grade Application (below) and submit the forms to Academic Services at the Zionsville Community Schools Educational Services Center, 900 Mulberry Street, Zionsville, IN. 46077 by no later than June 1st.
IMPORTANT NOTE: As professionals experienced with the performance of thousands of children, we reserve the right to evaluate information submitted and make our own determinations about whether we will waive the entrance requirement for any child. While we welcome parents to engage with us as partners, a parent who artificially skews testing data that we might use by "rigorously prepping" their child for assessments ahead of time actually does not enter the process in good faith--as it is designed to give us accurate pictures of a child's true performance levels and ability to learn rather than what they have been "trained" to do in the months prior to the assessment. Our testing norms and decision protocols take into account that this is most children’s first experience with assessments. With that said, we have had parents who believe that it is in their child's best interest for them to do this, and in many of those situations, when the child arrives for the simulation, they will evidence stress and anxiety in degrees that often render test results less important to us. If our teacher assessment team perceives children are highly stressed about their parents' expectations for their academic outcomes during the testing and assessment day, that has a negative impact on our willingness to offer early entrance to that child as it is not our wish to bring our littlest learners into school settings that will contribute detrimentally to their emotional health over time.