District 45 follows Illinois law, which specifies that a child must be five years old on or before September 1st of their kindergarten year or six years old on or before September 1st of their first-grade year in order to be age-eligible for enrollment (105 ILCS 5/10-20.12). District 45 considers early entry to Kindergarten and Grade 1 in alignment with the Accelerated Placement Act. Per District 45 Policy 7:50, students who turn five by September 30 are eligible to be assessed for early entrance into kindergarten, and students who turn six by September 30 are eligible to be assessed for early entrance into first grade.
When considering requesting early entrance to Kindergarten or Grade 1, we recommend families reflect on their child’s academic and social performance throughout their academic careers and consider their children’s ages at different points in their school experience.
Families must provide the following to the home school office:
Upon submission of the required documentation, families may complete the request form directly or a school office may assist the family with completion. The District 45 Central Office will monitor the request forms and schedule assessments with the Director of Student Services or another district psychologist. Following the assessment, a team made up of district administrators, the school principal or assistant principal, a Kindergarten teacher representative, and the child’s parents/guardians will convene to review the findings.
Application Open – January 1 – April 15
Parents/guardians wishing to apply for early entrance to kindergarten or first grade for their child must submit a request form no later than April 15 of the prior school year.
Children eligible for Early Admission to Kindergarten must score in the 90th percentile overall on the DIAL-4. The District 45 evaluation team will also strongly consider individual subtest scores in motor skills, concepts, language, self-help, and social-emotional development.
A district school psychologist evaluates motor skills, concepts, and language development by administering the DIAL-4. A parent questionnaire assesses self-help and social-emotional development.
Please note that students who will not turn 6 by September 1 but who did attend private kindergarten are not automatically placed in Grade 1 upon enrollment in District 45. Students are required to have been taught by a certified teacher in their non-public preschool program.
Children eligible for Early Admission to First Grade must score a Total Achievement Composite of at least 130 (Extremely High) on the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test 4th edition.
This includes subtests in the areas of:
Children with a first language of Spanish will be assessed using the Batería IV Woodcock-Muñoz. Children eligible for Early Admission to First Grade must score an Academic Skills Composite and Academic Applications Composite of at least 130 (Extremely High) on the Batería IV Woodcock-Muñoz.
This includes subtests in the areas of:
This assessment will be administered by a District 45 staff member and reviewed by an evaluation team, including district and school-based professionals.
Related Board of Education Policy
6:135 Accelerated Placement Program
7:50 School Admissions and Student Transfers To and From non-District Schools