Kindergarten entry If the Legislature raises the kindergarten entry age, it should provide a pre-kindergarten class on campus for the younger children who would be displaced from school, state Human Services Director Lillian Koller said yesterday.
age debated
Backers say a higher age will
benefit young kids, but others worry
about poor children
By Susan Essoyan
sessoyan@starbulletin.comShe spoke at a Senate Education Committee hearing on a proposal to raise Hawaii's public school kindergarten entry age to bring it in line with most U.S. states and ensure that children are developmentally ready for school.
Under current law, children must turn 5 by Dec. 31 of the year in which they start school. A bill introduced by Sen. Norman Sakamoto (D, Waimalu-Salt Lake) would move the date up to Oct. 16 in the 2005-2006 school year, and Aug. 1 the next year.
"The Department of Human Services supports the intent of this bill," Koller said. "However, we have concerns about the impact of the change on low-income families if additional pre-K resources are not available.
"It is imperative that the state find a way to serve these children on the campuses of the Department of Education ... either in a two-tiered kindergarten structure or a pre-K initiative."
The Department of Education estimates that 3,000 children whose birth dates are late in the year would be left out in the first year, and 5,000 the second year. After that, kindergarten classes would return to their normal 12-month complement of children.
Sakamoto and Koller suggested that classroom space and teachers, who otherwise would be handling those children in regular kindergarten, could shift to accommodate them in pre-kindergarten classes during the first year of the transition.
The Hawaii State Parent Teacher Association testified in favor of raising the age, saying that 4-year-olds often have trouble focusing in today's academically oriented kindergartens, and can end up mislabeled as requiring special education when all they need is time to mature.
"A disproportionate number of children who enter school at this early age are classified as learning-disabled," said John Friedman, PTSA past president. "Often this classification is simply that a child is unable to remain in his/her seat for prolonged periods or has trouble staying on task, as any 4-year-old would."
He also noted that federal law now measures Hawaii students against national norms in standardized testing. "It is untenable that our children will be compared to children who, though in the same grade level, are younger both chronologically and developmentally."
The National Education Association also supports requiring children to reach age 5 before starting kindergarten, according to testimony submitted to the committee.
The Hawaii State Teachers Association testified in favor of instituting a "junior kindergarten," especially for at-risk children, and making kindergarten compulsory before changing the entrance age.
The Good Beginnings Alliance advised against raising the age, calling public school kindergarten "the one place all children now can receive an early education," since many cannot afford preschool. There are about 13,400 students in public kindergartens across the state.
The committee plans to vote on the proposal on Monday.