Ellwood City School Board to Vote on Kindergarten Admission Policy

The Ellwood City Area School District Board is set to vote on whether to make changes to Policy 201 during its Tuesday, January 21st meeting.

At the December 5th meeting the board voted to have administration review the policy, which pertains to kindergarten admission at Ellwood City Area Schools after a parent spoke out at the board’s November 14th meeting. New parent to the district Megan Jones said she was disappointed to learn that her child who has already invested two years into preschool would not make the August 15 cutoff for kindergarten registration. She said her daughter will turn 5 on August 23, just days after the cutoff.

The current policy, passed in July 2019, by the board states: “A child is eligible for admission to kindergarten if s/he has attained the age of five (5) years on or before August 15 of that year.” After review, the administration recommended that the policy should remain as is, but not everyone agrees.

Board member Kathleen McCommons and Board President, Renee Pitrelli, questioned the policy and wondered if early admission should be considered in certain circumstances and based on a particular child’s social and emotional development.

Jones said at the November meeting that she called other school districts in the county asking about their kindergarten admission procedures and was told that the cut off date is September 1st and was told that if a parent feels a child is ready a parent can have them evaluated for admission consideration.

She said she was not given that option when she called the Ellwood City Area School District.

“I was told to get a sitter or just have the child hang out in daycare for a year,” she said. “That is just appalling to hear from a school district.”

She asked the board if a child with a birth date after August 15 was attending kindergarten in another district and were to move into the Ellwood City School district if that child would be admitted to continue kindergarten and finish the year.

District Solicitor John DeCaro said according to the established policy, that child would not legally be able to be admitted.

“With this being a small town with two districts that have completely two different policy when entering into kindergarten I started to wonder how it maybe causing issues at the day cares in this area as several of them take in children from both districts,” Jones said in a previous email to EllwoodCity.org. “Also parents that are not aware of the change made in the policy and have their children in preschool now thinking they are entering into Kindergarten next school year but won’t find out until March 2020 when they can’t get the package to register.”

A copy of the policy can be found by clicking here.