Early Entry for Kindergarten
For the regular kindergarten program, students need to be 5 by September 30th of the current school year. If a student turns 5 between October 1st and December 31st of that current school year this makes them eligible for our Early Kindergarten program.
We have a limited number of spots for this program and once it’s full, students will go to the waitlist and are eligible to roll their application over for Regular Kinder the following school year. Please Note: this is NOT a Pre-K program, it is considered Kindergarten and if the student is ready, they will promote to 1st grade the following school year.
FAQS
Students entering kindergarten for the upcoming school year must be five years old on or before September 30th of the current school year.
It’s the same application for every grade. You can apply online at www.azcharter.com/apply, or you can pick up a paper application at our Front Office.
Early Kindergarten applications that are chosen in the Open Enrollment lottery are “accepted pending the results of their screening.”
Screening dates will be between April and June.
It is our intention to complete all early entrance screenings by the end of April.
The screening will last approximately one hour.
No. The screeners will be looking for readiness skills that come naturally to children. You can’t prepare for this type of screening as you might for a traditional test.
No. However, we will ask you to remain on site.
There is a $30 screening fee for the child. This covers the cost of screening materials and
screener time.
If you decide not to have your child complete the screening, please contact us no later than the day of the screening. Your fee will be refunded. However, the fee will not be refunded in the case of no-shows who do not contact us or for those children who do not pass the screening and are not accepted for early entrance.
A team of professional educators will work together to administer various components of the screening. Your child may interact with two or three adults during the process. These teams will then score the evaluation components using the scoring rubrics that accompany the screening materials and make a group decision on each child screened.
Our screeners are not able to give their results of the screening until reviewed by the team. Someone will be in touch with you within 24 hours of your child being screened.
No. Every effort is made to ensure that the screening process is fair and equitable for all participants. Decisions as to those who are ready for kindergarten entrance will be made by a team of professionals and we ask that parents honor the team’s decision. Details of the screening are not shared before or after whether the child is accepted or not. The screener might share areas that could be worked on, but will not go item by item.
Preschool is not a requirement of early entrance.
There are not any fees or tuition associated with our Early Kindergarten program.